SENSATION INS LONDON.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 99, 26 April 1895, Page 3

SENSATION INS LONDON.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

The collapse of Oscar Wilde's case, and subsequent arrest (say the London correspondents of tho New York paipors), on the sth, caused a aensation without parallel in

London Eince. the exposure and flight of the forger Pigott. The poor fool imagined it still possible to brazen ib out, so he persuaded his lawyer, who refused to go on with the case, to bring the trial to a close by withdrawing the charges against Lord Queensberry. This waa; done, and then bhe facb was brought-hbme to Wilde that although nominally prosecutor, ib was he and not the Marquis of Queensberry who was really on trial. Even; the prompt verdict of the jury declaring explicitly that the itifa'moui.: charge, againsb him waa':. justified;did not make/the strange creature realise bis'position; ; • ' He wrote a note to the evening newspaper, declaring that he was unable to prove hia innocence, except by putting Lord Alfred Douglas in the witness box, and that he preferred <to euffer shame rather than allow the son to testify against the father. . ' This was simply imbecile, because nothing has been adduced in the trial aboub bhe relations between Wilde and Lord Douglas. There ia reason to believe; the disgraced man'waa prepared to flee from the country, bub bhe English law for once acted with commendable promptness. Red tape was cut. The Public Prosecutor applied for a warrant within two hours after the dramatic collapse of the caee in court, and tonight the man whoa fow days ago was a pampered exquiaite lies on a plank bed in an eight-by-four cell in the Bow-atreeb police station. The charge against him, for some reaaon not explained, is not felony, bub misdemeanour, and bhe maximum penalby is two years at hard labour, bub tbe Grand Jury may change the indictment to a more serious offence.

He must remain in gaol until the trial takes place in May, 'for the magistrate is certain to refuse to accept bail. The London newspapers have printed far more about the matter than has been telegraphed to the. American press. The great morning dailioa like tho " Times " and " Telegraph " have given'their readers 6,000 to 12,000 words daily of the court proceedings. Many seats which had been purchased ab tho Haymarkeb and Sb. James Theatres, where Wilde's plays, " The Ideal Husband," and " The Importance of Being Earnest," are running, were empty tonight. The audiences were small ■ and thero waa a smaller proportion of ladies than usual, bub no demonstration of any kind.

The "Leader" published ah interview with Lord Douglas, in which bhe labter aays: "Myeelf and every member of the family except father disbelieve all the' charges. We think them etmpiy part of tho persecution father has carried on against us ever since I can remember, and that Mr Wilde and his counsel are to blame for not showing, as they should have done, thab bhab was the fact."

The "Chronicle" says: lb sufficea ua to know aa some return for undamming tho public tidal wave that our life ia rid forever of a pe.-ibiferoua poser of decadence which haß received its death blow, and tho' way ia cleared for increased wholesomenees in life. We seem for aome unhappy purpose to havo been shuddering wibnesees of a revival of society under bhe late Roman empire, or against bbc dark background of bhe Italian Renaissance.