nal
prosecution of Mr. Oscar Wilde, but, on the very same morning when
Wilde withdrew from the prosecution, Mr. Russell sent a letter to the
Hon. Hamilton Cuffe, the Director of Public Prosecutions, with a copy
of "all our witnesses' statements, together with a copy of the
shorthand notes of the trial."

The Treasury authorities were at least as eager. As soon as possible
after leaving the court Mr. C.F. Gill, Mr. Angus Lewis, and Mr.
Charles Russell waited on Sir John Bridge at Bow Street in his private
room and obtained a warrant for the arrest of Oscar Wilde, which was
executed, as we have seen, the same evening.

The police showed him less than no favour. About eight o'clock Lord
Alfred Douglas drove to Bow Street and wanted to know if Wilde could
be bailed out, but was informed that his application could not be
entertained. He offered to procure comforts for the prisoner: this
offer also was peremptorily refused by the police inspector just as
Ross's offer of night clothes had been refused. It is a common belief
that in England a man is treated as innocent until he has been proved
guilty, but those who believe this pleasant fiction, have never been
in the hands of the English police. As soon as a man is arrested on
any charge he is at once treated as if he were a dangerous criminal;
he is searched, for instance, with every circumstance of indignity.
Before his conviction a man is allowed to wear his own clothes; but a
change of linen or clothes is denied him, or accorded in part and
grudgingly, for no earthly reason except to gratify the ill-will of
the gaolers.

The warrant on which Oscar Wilde was arrested charged him with an
offence alleged to have been committed under Section xi. of the
Criminal Amendment Act of 1885; in other words, he was arrested and
tried for an offence which was not punishable by law ten years before.
This Act was brought in as a result of the shameful and sentimental
stories (evidently for the most part manufactured) which Mr. Stead had
published in _The Pall Mall Gazette_ under the title of "Modern
Babylon." In order to cover and justify their prophet some of the
"unco guid" pressed forward this so-called legislative reform, by
which it was made a criminal offence to take liberties with a girl
under thirteen years of age--even with her own consent. Intimacy with
minors under sixteen was punishable if they consented or even tempted.
Mr. Labouchere, the Radical member, inflamed, it is