By London correspondents
First published in The Sydney Morning Herald on April 8, 1895
SPECIAL CABLES.
FROM THE HERALD'S LONDON CORRESPONDENTS.
THE LONDON SCANDAL.
OSCAR WILDE v. THE MARQUIS OF QUEENSBERRY.
DETENTION OF WITNESSES BY POLICE.
ARREST OF OSCAR WILDE.
LONDON, April 5.
Oscar Wilde hurriedly left the court while counsel for the Marquis of Queens-berry was explaining that the prosecutor's literature and letters justified the plea that Wilde posed as an immoral person. Wilde withdrew in order to avoid the appalling evidence that he feared would be brought against him by the witnesses for the defence.
Oscar Wilde in an undated photograph
The verdict of Not guilty was received in court with loud cheers.
No warrant against Oscar Wilde was applied for, but Mr. Russell, solicitor for the Marquis of Queensberry, sent to the Public Prosecutor a statement of the witnesses and notes of the evidence with the object of preventing a miscarriage of justice.
After the trial Oscar Wilde published a letter in which he stated that his reason for abandoning the case was to avoid calling Lord Alfred Douglas as a witness.
Wilde with the Marquess of Queensberry's son Lord Alfred Douglas - with whom he had formed an intimate relationship - in Oxford, about 1893.Credit: Library of Congress, Kaufmann Collection
A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Wilde, and the police have detained three essential witnesses in connection with the proceedings which are to be instituted against him.
LATER.
Oscar Wilde has been arrested.
April 6.
Lord Alfred Douglas and two men remained in conference with Oscar Wilde for several hours after the trial. They lunched in a private room at the Holborn Viaduct Hotel, after which Lord Alfred Douglas and Wilde drove to one of the banks. Wilde drew out a large sum of money, and was afterwards lost sight of until he was arrested the same evening in an hotel in Sloane-street.
Lord Alfred Douglas was much distressed at the result of the trial. He is unable to provide bail for Wilde's release.
The Marquis of Queensberry sent Oscar Wilde a message after the trial stating that he would shoot him if he attempted to take Lord Alfred Douglas abroad.
The man Taylor, who introduced to Oscar Wilde the young men mentioned during the trial, was arrested to-day.
Both Oscar Wilde and Taylor were brought up at Bow-street Police Court to-day. Several witnesses gave evidence which went to show that the charge now preferred against Wilde can be proved up to the hilt. It was also shown that Taylor acted as an intermediary for Wilde.
Oscar Wilde's name has been withdrawn from the playbills at the London and American theatres, where Wilde's dramas, " An Ideal Husband " and "The Importance of Being Earnest " are being
played.
April 7.
Paris is petrified in consequence of the exposures in the Oscar Wilde case.
Oscar Wilde has been remanded until Thursday. He has not yet been bailed out.
Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to two years' hard labour. After his release from prison in 1897 he sailed for France, where he died in 1900.