fy his atrocious cruelty. The unmerited
insults and appalling sentence would have disgraced the worst Judge of
the Inquisition.

Mr. Justice Wills evidently suffered from the peculiar "exaltation" of
mind which he had recognised in Shelley. This peculiarity is shared in
a lesser degree by several other Judges on the English bench in all
matters of sexual morality. What distinguished Mr. Justice Wills was
that he was proud of his prejudice and eager to act on it. He
evidently did not know, or did not care, that the sentence which he
had given, declaring it was "totally inadequate," had been condemned
by a Royal Commission as "inhuman." He would willingly have pushed
"inhumanity" to savagery, out of sheer bewigged stupidity, and that he
was probably well-meaning only intensified the revolt one felt at such
brainless malevolence.

The bitterest words in Dante are not bitter enough to render my
feeling:

"Non ragioniam di lor ma guarda e passa."

The whole scene had sickened me. Hatred masquerading as justice,
striking vindictively and adding insult to injury. The vile picture
had its fit setting outside. We had not left the court when the
cheering broke out in the streets, and when we came outside there were
troops of the lowest women of the town dancing together and kicking
up their legs in hideous abandonment, while the surrounding crowd of
policemen and spectators guffawed with delight. As I turned away from
the exhibition, as obscene and soul-defiling as anything witnessed in
the madness of the French revolution, I caught a glimpse of Wood and
the Parkers getting into a cab, laughing and leering.

These were the venal creatures Oscar Wilde was punished for having
corrupted!

End of Project Gutenberg's Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 (of 2), by Frank Harris

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