no proof of his Christian name in this case.”
The Attorney-General.—“My Lords, the question is, whether there is any
evidence whatever to prove the fact of the Christian name of Captain
Tuckett, the gentleman wounded. If there is the smallest scintilla of
evidence on this point, the prosecution cannot be stopped on the ground
taken up by my learned friend. We are now as if we were before a jury,
and the learned judge who presided were called upon to direct an
acquittal, upon the ground that there was no evidence for their
consideration. I submit to your lordships, that there is abundant
evidence to show that the name of the party wounded is Harvey Garnett
Phipps Tuckett. How does the case stand? My learned friend withdrew all
objection to the reading of the card. Well, then, the gentleman who was
wounded by Lord Cardigan on the 12th of September, was Captain Harvey
Tuckett. We have got, therefore, one of his names; and how does the case
stand with regard to the rest? Am I obliged to call the clerk of the
parish where he was baptised, in order to prove his baptismal register?
Am I to call his father or his mother, or his godfathers or godmothers,
to prove the name that was given to him at the baptismal font? I
apprehend that such evidence is wholly unnecessary. I contend that, from
the facts proved, there is abundant evidence to show the identity of the
party wounded was Captain Harvey Tuckett. I suppose my learned friend
will not deny that there is abundant evidence to show that the Captain
Tuckett who was wounded lived at No. 13, Hamilton Place, New Road. One
of the witnesses called there three times; he asks each time for Captain
Tuckett, and each time he is introduced to a gentleman bearing that
name. Your lordships, therefore, will have no doubt that the Captain
Tuckett who lives at No. 13, Hamilton Place, New Road, is the one who
fought the duel with Lord Cardigan on the 12th of September, on
Wimbledon Common. Now, my Lords, we go by steps. Is there any doubt that
this Captain Tuckett is the Captain Tuckett who took the offices in the
Poultry? At the time he did so, he gave a reference to No. 13, Hamilton
Place, New Road; and your lordships will therefore feel, no doubt, that
there is evidence to show that the Captain Tuckett who took the place of
business in the Poultry, was the same who lived in Hamilton Place. Then
we have only one other stage, and that is to see whether the Captain
Tuckett is the Captain Tuckett of whom Mr. Codd spoke, whose name he
proved to be Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett, and who had been an officer
of the 11th Dragoons, of which regiment the Earl of Cardigan was, and
still is, the colonel.”
Sir W. Follett.—“There is no proof of that whatever.”