Editing 20 Apr 1895 - The Globe (London)

<b>[[Case File: Oscar Wilde]]</b>

Page 5, Column 3, Link

<b><center>OSCAR WILDE - THE QUESTION OF BAIL</b></center>

The Exchange Telegraph Company states on the highest authority that nothing has yet been one in respect to making an application for bail in the case of Oscar Wilde, owing to the fact that two of the counsel who will defend the prisoner are at present out of town. On Monday next a conference will take place, when it will be definitely decided whether an application shall be made to postpone the hearing to the next sessions of the Central Criminal Court, or whether it shall be allowed to go on in the ordinary way, in which event the case, it is expected, will be taken on Friday next at the Old Bailey. In this event no application will probably be made, owing to the fact that after the learned judge has fixed the amount of the bail, it is necessary to give 48 hours' notice to the police, so that they can inquire as to the substantiality of the proposed sureties. If the application be made on Monday, and granted, Wilde could not be liberated until Wednesday. Should it be decided at the conference on Monday to ask for a postponement, bail will undoubtedly be applied for. The view that the judge is bound to grant bail, on a charge which only amounts to misdemeanor, is said to be supported by two decisions, though there is an instance in which it was disallowed by a High Court judge. The magistrate, however, can exercise his discretion in such a matter. The gentlemen who will defend Wilde are the same as appeared in his action against the Marquis of Queensberry, namely, Sir E. Clarke, Q.C., Mr. Charles Mathews, and Mr. Travers Humphreys.