THE WILDE-QURENSBEKRY LIBEL SUIT.

Evening Star, Issue 9677, 22 April 1895, Page 1

THE WILDE-QURENSBEKRY LIBEL SUIT.

A LONDON SOCIETY SENSATION.

[From Ocr Special Correspondent.]

LONDON, March S. The most noble the Marquis of Queeusberry has in the course of his eccentric career railed against so many persons and causes that society paid little or no attention of late to the fact that he was constantly crying out against Mr Oscar Wilde. We heard a week ago (as I told you iu my last) that there was something akin to a scene at the St. James’s Theatre premiere, owing to his lordship wishing to salute Oscar with a bouquet of carrots, but most people took this merely for a Q.ueensberrian joke. Great, therefore, became the cackle of gossip and speculation at the clubs when, on Saturday morning last, the Marquis was arrested for criminally libelling the poseur-poec-dramatist, and brought before Mr Newtou at Marlborough street. Mr Humphreys, in opening the case for the prosecution, said that Mr Oscar Wilde was a married man, and lived on most affectionate teims with his wife and children (two,sous). He had been the object of a system of the-most cruel persecution at the hands of Lord Queensberry, certainly withiu his (Mr Humphreys’s) knowledge for about nine or teu months, and, he was informed, even longer than that. Mr Wilde ten months ago consulted him (Mr Humphreys), and, in consequence of the affairs of the defendant’s family, Mr Wilde was moat unwilling to take any steps of a criminal nature against Lord Queensberry. But he bad been so fearfully persecuted by that nobleman from that time until the present that now it had come to a climax, and he felt bound to take the step he had taken in self-pot ciion and for peace of mind. The last, act in this most terrible and most melancholy drama was performed cn 18th February last, but only came to the knowledge of Mr Wilde, he believecl, on Thursday night. Mr Wilde was a member of the Albemarle Club, which was a club to which both ladies and gentlemen were admitted. Mrs Wilde, too, * was a member of the club, and l e (Mr Humphreys) believed she was a n. ember of the committee, or had been a member—in fact, she took an active interest in it. Mr Oscar Wilde, between five and six o’clock on the 28th February, went to the club, when the hall porter, a man named Wright, presented him with an envelope addressed to him. The handwriting on the back of the envelope was that of the hall porter, who informed Mr Wilde that there was a card inside that had been left at the club by the Marquis of Queensberry for him. When the porter saw what was written on the card, he thought it of sufficient importance to place the card in an envelope, and wrote outside the envelope the day and the time at which the card had been left with him. The words the porter wrote on the envelope were, “4.80. 18th Feb. 95.” The words written upon the card were read by Mr Humphreys. They are quite unfit for publication. There was one word' which was illegible.

The Marquis of Queensbury: The other word is “ posing.” Mr Humphreys said that a more frightful, serious, or abominable libel for one man to publish about another he could not conceive. He now only proposed to call as witnesses the hall porter of the club and the officer, Detective-inspector Greet, who executed the warrant. After their evidence he would ask for an adjournment, and the whole matter could be gone into on a future occasion, because he did not propose to rest his case simply upon the question of this libel. He proposed to go into other cases which had occurred before the 18th February, and after they had been investigated he would ask the magistrate to commit the defendant to take his trial.

Sir George Lewis asked that before any evidence was taken the case should be adjourned, so that he might consult with his client and have more time to consider the matter.

Mr Humphreys said he only prr ased then to call two witnesses, whose evi<k .-. , would be very short, and the whole matter could be gone into next week. Sidney AATight, hall porter at the Albemarle Club, then deposed that ou the 18th February last defendant presented himself at the club and spoke to him. He banded him the card produced, and in the witness’s presence wrote the words that were on the front of the card with the exception of the letter “A.” Lord Queensberry asked him to give the card to Mr Oscar Wilde. He (witness) wrote on the back of the card the date it was given to him. As a precautionary measure he put the card in an envelope in order that it might not be lost. On 28th February Mr AVilde called at the club between five and six o’clock in the evening, and be handed him the envelope containing the card and told him that Lord Queensberry had left it for him. Mr Newton: Did you fasten the envelope? The AYitness: No. Sir George Lewis: Lord Queensberry asked you to give the card to Mr AVilde? The Witness: Yes. He led you to distinctly understand that it was for Mr Os:ar Wilde?— Yes. Detective-inspector Thomas Greet, C Division, deposed that he arrested the defendant about nine o’clock that (Saturday) morning at Carter’s Hotel, Dover street. He said to him “ Are you the Marquis of Queensberry?” and the defendant replied “I am.” He then told him that he was a police officer, and that he held a warrant- for his arrest. He read the warrant to him, and defendant replied : “I thought in these cases proceedings were generally taken by summons, but 1 suppose it is all right. What is the date?” told him the 18th February. The Marquis then said: “ I have been wanting to find Mr Oscar Wilde for nine or ten days. This thing has been going on for about two years.” The witness conveyed him to the Vine street Police Station, and when charged there he made no reply. Sir George Lewis (to the magistrate): Let me say one word, sir. I venture to say, when the circumstances of this case are more fully known, you will find that Lord Queensberry acted as he did under feelings of great indignation and Mr Newton (interrupting); I cannot go into that now.

Sir George Lewis : I don’t want the case to be adjourned , without its being known that there is nothing against the honor of Lord Queensberry. Mr Newton : You mean to say you have a perfect answer to tho charge. Sir George Lewis: I ask you, sir, to allow his lordship to be at large on his entering into his own recognisances iu £I,OOO. Mr Humphreys: I should like to have a surely.

Mr Newton : The case will be adjourned for a week, and the defendant will have to find one surety in the sum of £SOO, and enter into his own recognisances iu the sum of £I.OOO to appear. Mr William Tyser, a merchant of Gloucester square, then stepped into the witness box, tendered the necessary bail, and the Marquis of Queensberry left the coqrt with his friends. . ■ ■

It is Lord Queensberry’s youngest son Arthur is the cams belli between the Marquis and Wilde, the former disapproving most strongly of the intimate friendship between the pair. For some time Lord Arthur Douglas has been on bad terms with his father, and makes no secret of his dislike for him. I’m told that a very Oscarian poem, addressed “ To him whom I hate,” or

“To him for whose death I hunger,” which appeared in the ‘ Pall Mall ‘ yzette ’ or ‘ Budget ’ seme time ago, w /by Lord Arthur, and seemed to lev lied at his sire. Not hing that a Dough a could do would ever astonish society much, or this story would be incredible.