A large salary is paid to magistrates in London, L1,500 a year, but it is rare indeed that any of them rises above the vulgarest prejudice.
Sir John Bridge not only refused bail but he was careful to give his reasons for refusing it: he had not the slightest scruple about prejudicing the case even before he had heard a word of the defence.
After hearing the evidence for the prosecution he said: "The responsibility of accepting or refusing bail rests upon me.

The considerations that weigh with me are the gravity of the offences and the strength of the evidence.

I must absolutely refuse bail and send the prisoners for trial." Now these reasons, which he proffered voluntarily, and especially the use of the word "absolutely," showed not only prejudice on the part of Sir John Bridge, but the desire to injure the unfortunate prisoner in the public mind and so continue the evil work of the journalists.
The effect of this prejudice and rancour on the part of the whole community had various consequences.
The mere news that Oscar Wilde had been arrested and taken to Holloway startled London and gave the signal for a strange exodus.

Every train to Dover was crowded; every steamer to Calais thronged with members of the aristocratic and leisured classes, who seemed to prefer Paris, or even Nice out of the season, to a city like London, where the police might act with such unexpected vigour.

The truth was that the cultured aesthetes whom I have already described had been thunderstruck by the facts which the Queensberry trial had laid bare.