Lieutenant-Colonel of the 11th Regiment of Hussars, of which His Royal
Highness, Prince Albert had recently received a commission as Colonel.
It appears to have 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, whether justly or unjustly it is not
for us to determine, procured for the former a considerable degree of
notoriety, which 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 the noble earl having
discovered their author, 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 can 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. When the court
had opened, and the chamber was filled, the _tout ensemble_ was
magnificent.
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 sergeant 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, where, being 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.
This necessary ceremony being 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; and both clerks retired with like reverences to the
table.
The sergeant-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 reading.
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
sergeant-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
Garnet 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
Garnet 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 purse-bearer, as before, and his grace being 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 sergeant at the lower end of the table on the same side.
Mr. Waddington opened the pleadings, stating 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.