THE EARL OF CARDIGAN
Tried on 16th of February, 1841, at the Bar of the House of Lords, for an Assault committed in a Duel
ON Tuesday, the 16th of February, 1841, the Right Hon. the Earl of Cardigan was tried by his peers, at the bar of the House of Lords, for an assault with intent to murder, alleged to have been committed by him when fighting a duel with Mr Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett.
The Earl of Cardigan, in the year 1840, held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 11th Regiment of Hussars, of which his Royal Highness Prince Albert had recently received a commission as Colonel. It had been the object of the Earl of Cardigan to advance the discipline and general conduct of his regiment to such a state as to entitle it to be esteemed in the light in which it was held -- that of a favourite regiment. The Earl had been appointed to the regiment in the year 1838, while it was serving in India, but in the spring of the ensuing year, the usual period of service abroad having expired, the 11th Hussars were ordered home, and soon after received the title of "Prince Albert's Own." While stationed at Brighton, in the course of the year 1840, some differences arose between the noble Earl and the officers under his command, which procured for the former a considerable degree of notoriety, and placed his character as the commander of a regiment in an unenviable position. Complaints to the War Office were the result of these misunderstandings, and the subject became matter of discussion in the various newspapers of the day. Amongst those journals which took a prominent part in these debates was The Morning Chronicle, and in the columns of that paper a series of letters appeared under the signature of "An Old Soldier," which eventually proved to be the contributions of Mr Tuckett, formerly a captain under the command of the Earl of Cardigan. Many of these letters undoubtedly contained matter highly offensive personally to the Earl of Cardigan, and when the noble Earl discovered their author he called upon him to afford him that satisfaction usually deemed to be due from one gentleman to another under circumstances of insult or any other provocation. A meeting took place at Wimbledon Common, on the 12th of September, 1840, the respective combatants being attended by seconds, the result of which was that at the second shot Captain Tuckett was wounded. The whole affair was witnessed by some persons resident in the neighbourhood, and the parties were all taken into custody, and eventually bound over to appear to answer any charge which might be preferred against them at the ensuing sessions at the Central Criminal Court.
A police constable was directed to institute a prosecution, and bills of indictment were laid before the grand jury against Captain Tuckett and Captain Wainewright, his second; and also against the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Douglas, who had attended him in the capacity of his friend. In the cases of the two first-named individuals the bill was ignored, but a true bill was returned against the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Douglas.
The extent of jurisdiction of the judges at the Old Bailey prevented them from trying the Earl of Cardigan, whose alleged offence the noble Earl was entitled to have inquired of by his peers, and the investigation of the case against the parties indicted was therefore postponed from session to session until the sitting of Parliament, the Court declining to enter upon the case of Captain Douglas until that of the principal to the offence alleged against him had first been disposed of. Parliament assembled on the 16th of January, 1841, and then, so soon as the forms of the House of Lords would admit, the bill of indictment was removed by certiorari, in order to be disposed of by their Lordships. The customary preliminary forms having been complied with, on the day above named -- namely, Tuesday, the 16th of February -- the trial took place.
The public had been made acquainted with the fact that the trial would not take place in Westminster Hall, and that the Painted Chamber, in which the Peers had met for parliamentary business since the destruction of the old House by fire, was under preparation for this solemn and imposing scene. The smallness of the apartment, and the general desire amongst the peeresses and the various members of the nobility and rank of the land to be present upon so important and interesting an occasion, rendered it necessary that very extensive alterations should be made to secure sufficient accommodation, and considerable ingenuity had been exercised in order to accomplish that object, every corner and nook from which a glimpse of the court could be snatched being provided with sittings. But the capacity of the building prevented the architect, with all his skill, from making the supply equal to the demand. The benches, galleries and floor were covered with crimson cloth, and the walls themselves with paper in which that colour was predominant, and the effect was to make the gorgeous robes of the peers and the splendid dresses of the peeresses stand out in dazzling relief.
At a quarter before eleven o'clock the Lords' Speaker (Lord Denman), having robed in his private room, entered the House. A procession was formed in the usual manner, his Lordship being preceded by the Purse-bearer with the purse, the serjeant with the mace, the Black Rod carrying the Lord High Steward's staff, and Garter carrying his sceptre.
Garter and Black Rod having taken their places at the bar, the Lord Speaker proceeded to the woolsack, when, after he was seated, prayers were read by the Bishop of Lichfield.
The clerk-assistant of Parliament then proceeded to call over the Peers, beginning with the junior baron.
When this necessary ceremony was completed, the clerks of the Crown in Chancery and in the Queen's Bench jointly made three reverences, and the clerk of the Crown in Chancery, on his knee, delivered the commission to the Lord Speaker, who gave it to the clerk of the Crown in the Queen's Bench to read; then both clerks retired with like reverences to the table.
The serjeant-at-arms then made proclamation, and the Lord Speaker informed the Peers that her Majesty's commission was about to be read, and directed that all persons should rise and be uncovered while the commission was being read.
The commission appointing Lord Denman as Lord High Steward was then read, and Garter and Black Rod, having made their reverences, proceeded to the woolsack and took their places on the right of the Lord High Steward, and both holding the staff, presented it on their knees to his Grace.
His Grace rose and, having made reverence to the throne, took his seat in the chair of state provided for him on the uppermost step but one of the throne. Proclamation was then made for silence; when the Queen's writ of certiorari to remove the indictment, with the return thereof, and the record of the indictment were read by the clerk of the Crown in the Queen's Bench. The Lord High Steward then directed the serjeant-at-arms to make proclamation for the yeoman usher to bring the prisoner to the bar.
The Earl of Cardigan immediately entered the House and advanced to the bar, accompanied by the yeoman usher. He made three reverences, one to his Grace the Lord High Steward, and one to the peers on either side, who returned the salute. The ceremony of kneeling was dispensed with. The noble Earl, who was dressed in plain clothes, was then conducted within the bar, where he remained standing while the Lord High Steward acquainted him with the nature of the charge against him.
The prisoner was arraigned in the usual form, for firing at Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett, on the 12th of September, with intent to kill and murder him. The second count charged him with firing at the said Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett with intent to maim and disable him; and the third count varied the charge -- with intent to do him some grievous bodily harm.
The clerk then asked: "How say you, James Thomas, Earl of Cardigan, are you guilty or not? "
The Earl of Cardigan, in a firm voice, replied: "Not guilty, my Lords."
THE CLERK: How will you be tried, my lord?
THE EARL OF CARDIGAN: By my peers.
The noble prisoner then took his seat on a stool within the bar, and his Grace the Lord High Steward removed to the table, preceded by Garter, Black Rod and the Pursebearer, as before. When his Grace was seated, Black Rod took his seat on a stool at a corner of the table, on his Grace's right hand, holding the staff, Garter on a stool on Black Rod's right, and the serjeant at the lower end of the table on the same side.
Mr Waddington opened the pleadings; he stated the nature of the offence as set out in the indictment, and added that the noble prisoner had, for his trial, put himself upon their Lordships, his peers.
The Attorney-General in a lengthy address explained the law and the facts of the case; and the evidence of various persons who had witnessed the transaction of the duel was then produced; but at the close of the case it was objected by Sir William Follett, on behalf of the Earl of Cardigan, that there was no evidence to show that the person against whom the shot was discharged was Mr Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett. The card of "Mr Harvey Tuckett" had been put in; but this might have been quite another person from the individual pointed to by the indictment.
The Attorney-General was heard on the other side; but, after a short deliberation, the Lord High Steward announced that the evidence which fixed the identity of the individual was insufficient, The Peers thereupon declared the noble defendant not guilty.
At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday, the 3rd of March, Captain Douglas was put upon his trial, before Mr Justice Williams, upon the indictment which had been found against him; but the jury, in the absence of positive evidence to identify Mr Tuckett, came to the same conclusion as that which had been arrived at by the House of Peers; and a verdict of acquittal was returned.