LONDON SCANDAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2145, 4 April 1895, Page 14

LONDON SCANDAL.

Jobn Stolto Douglas, Marquis of Queensberry, was arraigned before the magistiate (Mr Newton) in the Blarlborough Police Court, London, on the afternoon oF March 2, o;» a charge of having libelltd Oscar Wilds. Mr Wilde's lawyer, in presenting the case, set forth that his client was a husband who was living upon most affectionate terms ■with his wife and two sots. For the laat nine or ten months he said the Warqu : s of Queem berry had peistcuted Mr Wilde with the utmost cruelty. The last act of persecution occurred on February 28, when the marquis left Wilde, at a club of which both are members, au open card upon the back cf which was wii»tcu a vile epithet. The porter cf the club, upon jeiding the word, cuclcs:d the card in an envelops so that it might not bo seen by any other i ersjn than Wilde. Th-i detective who arrested tre marquis at Dover on the morning of March 2 testifi-d thtit when he approached tha inarqu:s and iuformed him of the complaiut upoa which he was arrested, his lordfhip eaid, " This his been going ou for two years." Sir George Lewis, the Marquis <f Queenfcberry's to'icitor, in his address to the court, said that when the facts became fully known it would be found that the marquis had betn acting uader the influence of great indignation based upon abucdant provocation. It has not been a secret (gays the <?e-p~-iteh) that tbe reason for the Marquis of Queenaberry'n resentment was to be foui.d in the iutimate relations existing bstweui Mr Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, until the death of Lord Drumlaurig placed him cexb in succefsion, was the jounger son of the ro&rquis. Owing to the friendship existing between Wilde and Lord Alfred the latter beo me estrni ged from his father, who, feeling his position more acutely by reason of sundry reports concerning 111 3 nature of the relations betw ec n Wilde and bis son, which are also common property, conceived a most violent antipathy to Mr Wilde.