Editing Edward Carson (section)

== As a barrister ==

In 1877 Carson was called to the [[Irish Bar]] after graduating from [[King's Inns]].<ref name=":0" /> He gained a reputation for fearsome advocacy and supreme legal ability and became regarded as a brilliant barrister, among the most prominent in Ireland at the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sir_edward_carsons.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208181845/http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/sir_edward_carsons.htm|url-status=dead|title=History Learning Site<!-- Bot generated title -->|archivedate=8 February 2007}}</ref> He was also an acknowledged master of the appeal to the [[jury]] by his legal wit and oratory.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lawlibrary.ie/About-Us/History-of-the-Bar.aspx |title=Edward Carson |publisher=The Bar of Ireland Law Library |access-date=14 September 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200929113422/https://www.lawlibrary.ie/About-Us/History-of-the-Bar.aspx |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was appointed [[Queen's Counsel]] (Ireland) in 1889 and was Called to the English Bar at [[Middle Temple]] on 26 April 1893.<ref name=":0" /> He was twice admitted to the Inn, once on 1 November 1875 and then again on 21 April 1893, and was made a Bencher on 15 June 1900.<ref>Sturgess, H.A.C. (1949). ''Register of Admissions of the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple''. Butterworth & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.: Temple Bar. Vol. 2, p. 597</ref>
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=== Oscar Wilde ===

{{Main|Oscar Wilde#Trials|l1=Oscar Wilde trials}}

[[File:Edward Carson Vanity Fair 9 November 1893.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Carson addressing Parliament as depicted in ''[[Vanity Fair (UK magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' in 1893]]

In 1895, he was engaged by the [[John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry|Marquess of Queensberry]] to lead his defence against [[Oscar Wilde]]'s action for [[criminal libel]].<ref name=":0" /> The Marquess, angry at Wilde's ongoing homosexual relationship with his son, [[Lord Alfred Douglas]], had left his calling card at Wilde's club with an inscription accusing Wilde of being a "posing [[Sodomy|somdomite]]" {{Sic}}. Wilde retaliated with a libel action, as homosexuality was, at the time, illegal.

[[Kevin Myers]] states that Carson's initial response was to refuse to take the case. Later, he discovered that Queensberry had been telling the truth about Wilde's activity and was therefore not guilty of the libel of which Wilde accused him.<ref>{{cite news |first=Kevin |last=Myers |date=20 March 2009 |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/edward-carson-and--oscar-wilde--mythic-rewriting-of-history-drives-me-wild-14237022.html |title=Edward Carson and Oscar Wilde – mythic rewriting of history drives me wild |newspaper=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref>

Carson portrayed the playwright as a morally depraved hedonist who seduced naïve young men into a life of homosexuality with lavish gifts and promises of a glamorous artistic lifestyle. He impugned Wilde's works as morally repugnant and designed to corrupt the upbringing of the youth{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}. Queensberry spent a large amount of money on [[private detective]]s who investigated Wilde's activity in the London underworld of homosexual clubs and procurers.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Wilde abandoned the case when Carson announced in his opening speech for the defence that he planned to call several [[male prostitute]]s who would testify that they had had sex with Wilde, which would have rendered the libel charge unsupportable as the accusation would have been proven true{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}. Wilde was [[bankrupt]]ed when he was then ordered to pay the considerable legal and detective bills Queensberry had incurred in his defence.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Based on the evidence of Queensberry's detectives and Carson's cross-examinations of Wilde at the trial, Wilde was subsequently prosecuted for [[Labouchere Amendment|gross indecency]] in a second trial. He was eventually found guilty and sentenced to two years' [[hard labour]], after which he moved to France, where he died penniless.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

=== Cadbury Bros. ===

In 1908 Carson appeared for the London ''[[Evening Standard]]'' in a libel action brought by [[George Cadbury]]. The ''Standard'' was controlled by Unionist interests which supported [[Joseph Chamberlain]]'s [[Imperial Preference]] views. The Cadbury family were [[Liberalism|Liberal]] supporters of [[free trade]] and had, in 1901, purchased ''[[The Daily News (UK)|The Daily News]]''. The ''Standard'' articles alleged that Cadbury Bros Ltd., which claimed to be model employers having created the village of [[Bournville]] outside [[Birmingham]], knew of the slave labour conditions on [[Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe|São Tomé]], the Portuguese island colony from which Cadbury purchased most of the [[Cocoa bean|cocoa]] used in the production of their [[chocolate]].<ref>{{cite book | title=A civilised savagery: Britain and the new slaveries in Africa, 1884–1926 | author=Kevin Grant | publisher=Routledge | year=2005 | isbn=0-415-94901-7 | page=[https://archive.org/details/civilisedsavager0000gran/page/110 110] | url=https://archive.org/details/civilisedsavager0000gran/page/110 }}</ref>

The articles alleged that George's son William had gone to São Tomé in 1901 and observed for himself the slave conditions, and that the Cadbury family had decided to continue purchasing the cocoa grown there because it was cheaper than that grown in the British colony of the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]], where labour conditions were much better, being regulated by the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Office]]. The ''Standard'' alleged that the Cadbury family knew that the reason cocoa from São Tomé was cheaper was because it was grown by slave labour. This case was regarded at the time as an important political case as Carson and the Unionists maintained that it showed the fundamental immorality of free trade. George Cadbury recovered [[contemptuous damages]] of one [[Farthing (British coin)|farthing]] in a case described as one of Carson's triumphs.<ref>''Chocolate on Trial: Slavery, Politics, and the Ethics of Business'', by Lowell J. Satre {{ISBN|0-8214-1626-X}}</ref>

=== Archer-Shee case ===

Carson was also the victorious counsel in the 1910 [[Archer-Shee Case]], exonerating a [[Royal Naval College, Osborne]] cadet of the charge of theft of a [[postal order]]. The cadet was from a quite prominent Roman Catholic banking family, and educated, both before and after Osborne, at [[Stonyhurst College|Stonyhurst]] College.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Irwin |first=Francis |title=Stonyhurst War Record |publisher=Stonyhurst College |year=1927 |pages=6-7}}</ref> On this case, [[Terence Rattigan]] based his play ''[[The Winslow Boy]]''.