Tuckett mentioned in this indictment; and, however unsatisfactory a
termination it may be to the persons conducting the prosecution, I
submit to your lordships that they have entirely failed in the proof of
their identity.”
The Lord High Steward.—“I stated, when this objection was first taken,
that I thought strangers ought to withdraw, and I am still of that
opinion. The learned counsel, however, did not object to the argument of
the Attorney-General, and therefore I did not think it right to
interrupt him; but I wish to say, with a view to the general
administration of criminal justice, that, when similar objections are
taken in a criminal court, the counsel for the prosecution is at the
utmost called upon to state what portion of evidence he believes to be
sufficient to make out his case. I do not recollect any case in which an
argument has been heard on the subject. I mention this as a point which
may be of consequence in the practice of the courts of criminal law
hereafter; and I now move your lordships that strangers be ordered to
withdraw.”
The counsel and strangers were then ordered to withdraw, and the Earl of
Cardigan retired in the custody of the Yeoman Usher. A protestation of
the Archbishop of Canterbury, for himself and the rest of the Bishops,
was delivered, desiring leave to be absent when judgment was given;
leave was accordingly given. After which, the objection taken by Sir
William Follett was taken into consideration. After the Lord High
Steward had delivered his opinion thereupon, as an individual member of
the court, and declared it to be his judgment that the Earl of Cardigan
was entitled to be declared Not guilty, it was moved, that the House do
now proceed to give their opinion whether the said Earl is guilty or not
guilty of the charge in the indictment; which, being put, passed in the
affirmative. Strangers being again admitted, after proclamation made for
silence, the Lord High Steward, standing up, by a list called every peer
by his name, beginning with the junior Baron, and asked him, “John Lord
Keane, how says your lordship; is James Thomas Earl of Cardigan guilty
of the felony whereof he stands indicted, or not guilty.” Whereupon each
peer, upon his name being called, standing up in his place uncovered,
and laying his right hand upon his breast, answered, “Not guilty, upon
my honour:” the only exception being the Duke of Cleveland, who said,
“Not guilty legally, upon my honour.” After all the peers had given
their verdict, the Lord High Steward, standing up uncovered, declared
his opinion to the same effect. The Earl of Cardigan being then brought
to the bar, the Lord High Steward said, “James Thomas Earl of Cardigan,
you have been indicted for a felony, for which you have been tried by
your peers, and I have the satisfaction of informing you that their
lordships have pronounced you not guilty, by an unanimous sentence. The
number of their lordships who gave this verdict I have not precisely at