"Q.—And you consider that answering any question respecting Captain Tuckett may tend to criminate yourself?
"A.—It is possible that it would.
"Q.—And on that ground you decline?
"A.—Yes.
"Attorney-General, [to the House.]—Then, unless your Lordships wish to ask any question of the witness, he may withdraw.
"The witness was directed to withdraw."
Here, then, were four avenues through which light might have been thrown on a transaction which was the subject of such solemn and dignified inquiry by the most illustrious judicial assembly in the world, carefully closed: Sir James Anderson, Captain Tuckett, Captain Douglas, and Captain Wainwright. It will be further observed that Lord Cardigan, in his frank avowal at the police station, had happened not to mention the name of the gentleman whom he had fought and wounded—an omission probably altogether accidental, for his Lordship seems to have been in a humour of signal yet becoming and characteristic frankness.
The sole question in this celebrated case thus became one of identity—the indictment charging Lord Cardigan with having fired at one Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett—it being the duty of the prosecutors to prove that the prisoner fired at a person bearing these names. There was abundant evidence that Lord Cardigan had fired at and wounded a Captain Harvey Tuckett; but this might be a person totally different from him named in the indictment. The skill and vigilance of the prisoner's counsel were visible in tripping up his opponents whenever they approached inconveniently near his client. There is no reason to believe that Lord Cardigan's counsel were aware of there being the slightest difficulty, on the part of the prosecution, in proving the identity of the wounded man with the one specified in the indictment; but at the very first start, Sir William Follett perceived a faint possible advantage, and never for one instant lost sight of it.
"You tell us," said the counsel for the prosecution, examining the first witness—the miller, "that you saw the pistols fired a second time: did you observe whether either of the shots took effect?
"A.—I thought Captain Tuckett was wounded—or, at least, the other gentleman: I did not know who it was.