LESSON OF THE WILDE CASE.

Timaru Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 1808, 17 July 1895, Page 4

LESSON OF THE WILDE CASE.

In a brief comment on' the close of the trial of Oscar Wilde, the Daily \ Chronicle said: — Sadj : indeed, ; has been the degradation of the feeling fbr art, 1 for beauty, for refinement, the picture- c-f senseless idleness which a man of great talent, but of perverted, hardly one would say of sane, character has paraded befc-te-us. The trial forms indeed, a fresh chapter m Dr Nordau's indictment of" degeneration," an appalling picture of the' state of mind and heart m which all intellectual ahS moral perspective becomes blurred and distorted. Nothing^ however, arises m life without a cause, and we have to consider whether there is not m our educational system some black spot that produces these defacements. If .some of our schoolmasters had been a little more courageous, and a great deal more conscientious, we might have escaped the 1 sickly contamination of these and many preceding scandals. One of the failings ofmiddleclassandupperclassEnghshlife hasbeeti the unnatural divorce of parents for their dhildreni The case is. otherwise m France, where the influence of mothers on their sons is much stronger and more Continuous than with us. \Va are far'ffom agreeing with all the claims of the KeW Woman, but we are stronglyof bpinibn that m the strengthening of the mother's influence over her child lies a'cure for many of the evils of " civilised " life. The' herding of boys m great schools, their too early separation from their homes, and from association with their mother and sisters, and the fact that after a certain age parents become almost total strangers' to their children —all these things, coupled with the tasteless luxury thai rich paients hold out as a poisonous lure to idle young' men and* women", afford a tembiy ' wide margin for the"- gradual ■' "perversion of heart and intellects ; Ife is clear 'that' if we are totread^safefy'the glippeiy path of civilisation,- if we'are 'not to fall back into decadent paganism,we must harden and simplify our A: Uveß. Plain livirig and high thinking is not only tire poet's watchword ; it is the watjchwbrd 1 of "the democrat, the good citizen; -'and the tnarr of senses ■■■■■ In an earlier section of the article ttie editor wrbte .•^-■"Hissent&nee, 'enforced asit will be by the BevePrat l rigors known to our abhorrent penal system;' 'is virtually & senterice ! of dfeathb* Of madilie^s, 1 a fate to which we confess ' we -hesitate to condemn any human creature!'whatever." A correspondent next day asked what this meant, and he was enlightened as as follows :-^-Two years' <hajd ; ; labour 1 is the severest sen tence\ while it lasts, known to the English criminal law. It is a form of punishment which is never inflicted on convicts sentenced to penal servitude, inasmuch -m it; is calculated to produce madness amongst ' thCm. Nine months' separate confinement is as much as a convict gets, and J is considered as much ashis mind can stand. The Prisons Committee report that even nine months 1 separation often injuriously affect the nervous system, and recpinmend a" reduction of the time.- A prisoner under two years' 1 hard labour may be kept during the whole time m the solitude of his cell, with the exception of one hour a day. During a portion of his detention he is allowed no ordinary reading books, has a wooden plank as a bed, and has to engage m occupation , which the Jate chairman of the Prison Board declares to be " irrita ting/ depressing, and debasing to the mental faculties, and decidedly brutalising m its effect." So severe is this form of sentence consid-ered-to be that* "many judges "will not inflict it at all, and last year iri a total of 160,000 short sentences only thirtyfour persons were committed for -two yearslby the ordinary efimin&l courts."