The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNA-LS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Times.)
The extraordinary. termination of the proceedings of the-
highest Court of criminal judicature in Lord Cardigan's ease •
reflects deep disgrace upon the present state of the English
law, and suggests very grave doubts as to the manner in which
the officers who represented the Crown on this occasion have
discharged their duties. James Thomas, Earl of Cardigan, was
arraigned before his Peers under the Act of 1 Victoria, Cap,
85, which makes the crime of deliberately shooting at any
her Majesty's subjects, with intent to kill or do grievous
bodily harm, a felony punishable with transportation or impri-
sonment ; and, in cases where the attempt to kill is followed by
tz wound, imposes the still graver penalty of death. The crime
of wLich Lord Cardigan was accused was, that on the 12th of •
Septerni,cr last he fired a loaded pistol at one of her Majesty's
subjects, wit:l
bodily harm. the intent to kill, or to maim, or to do grievous
Evidence, perhaps the clearest and the
most convincing eve; submitted to. a Court of Justice, was pry-
duced to show that o;..1
tue Lay' in question the prisoner
had deliberately, and wish=" -
premeditation, fired a loaded
pistol at one of her Maj..ssty's subjects, and wounded
him. And yet the Earl of Cara.;Fan was acquitted of the
crime laid to his charge by the unants.nous verdict of a very nu-
merous assemblage of the Nobles of Greet Britain and Ireland.
How was this ? Could the Members of tat august tribunal.
be so forgetful of their honour as to consp,re for the pur-
pose of shielding one of their order from the consequence e
of his actions at the expense of decency, truth, an,ii justice?
Were they capable of confounding their judicial ars.d their
legislative character, of disregarding a long and uniform aeries
of decisions upon cases of duelling from the time of Lord mie
downwards, and of avowing the principle that henceforward
the laws of God and man must give place to the licentious
and sanguinary code of what is called society? No : we
have not come to this—we will Dot believe that there is one
individual Peer who, after having solemnly invoked the
direction of God upon his counsels, in delivering his sen-
tence upon his honour, could act the compurgator's
part ; but, if even this were credible, it- would be tit..
terly impossible for the whole illustrious order to plunge
suddenly from the height of nobility to the depth of baseness.
Why, then, was Lord Cardigan acquitted? We blush to write
the reason, but it must be said. He was indicted for shooting .
at " Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett." He was prover/
to have shot at a person who passed by the name of
" Captain Harvey Tuckett." Harvey Garnett Phipps
Tuckett was proved to be a captain on half-pay in her
Majesty's service ; but because no distinct evidence was brought
to show that the Captain Harvey Tuckett who was shot was
also baptized by the names of Garnett and Phipps, the proof of
the indictment was considered to have failed in an essential
point, and Lord Cardigan was pronounced (as the Duke of
Cleveland emphatically said) " legally, not guilty."
For this result were 3,000/. or 4,0001. of the public
money expended upon the pageant of yesterday,—for
this was the stately pomp of a Lord High Stewart
and aCourt of ermined Peers paraded before the eyes of foreign.
Ambassadors and distinguished men, who doubtless expected to
witness some august spectacle of justice, which the civilized and •
Christian wbrld might admire and imitate,—for this the course
of legislation was interrupted for a week and upwards,—for this_
were prayers solemnly offered to the Most High ! For this—
that all the world might learn how much more important names
are considered in British jurisprudence than things ; how om-
nipotent quirks, and quibbles, and pettifogging objections are in
Westminster-hall ; how infinitely more serious a matter it.is
with us to preserve the technical rules of evidence and pleading
than to vindicate the laws of God and man ! Cif
what materiality, we would ask, was this fatal flag
in the evidence to the only issue in which the •
Crown and the country were interested—the question '
whether Lord Cardigan had or had not committers
felony by unlawfully attempting the life of a British subject?
What earthly difference could it make in a moral or social, or
ought it to make in a legal point of view, whether that British
subject was rightly or wrongly described in the indictment—
whether •he was Harvey Tuckett or Harvey Garnett Phipps
Tuckett—whether he had one or fifty Christian names, so long
as it was distinctly proved by sufficient evidence that the law
had been broken, the rights of society outraged, and the ap-
pointed penalty incurred ? Captain Tuckett was not suing
Lord Cardigan for damages, nor was this a criminal proceeding
against Captain Tuckett himself. And, after all, the discre-
pancy between the name on Capt. Tuckett's card and that laid in
the indictment was nothing but what universally occurs in prac-
tice wtten individuals have numerous baptismal names. If the,
principle of their Lordships' decision were consistently carried o ut,
her Majesty's sign manual might be treated with contempt, upon
the pretence that Victoria Regina could not be identified with
the " most high and mighty Princess Alexandrine Victoria,
daughter of his late Royal Highness Edward, Duke of Kent."
The evidence at Lord Cardigan's trial was sufficient to produce
a complete moral certainty in the mind of every Peer present
ay, and of every man, woman, and child in the United King-
dom, that the Captain Tuckett named in the indictment, and
the Captain Tuckett spoken of by the witnesses, were one and
the same person. What is enough to produce moral certainty
ought to be enough for all purposes of the law. Nothing is
further from our intention than to cast any reflection upon the
House of Lards. The Peers gave their sentence according to
what in their consciences they believed to be the law ;•
and we cannot pretend to dispute their unanimous judg-
ment. But we do - mean to cast reflection upon that
state of the law which required such a sentence to be given.
We ask, moreover, whether the law officers of the Crown can
justify to the country the manner in which they conducted this
proseoution ;—whether they had no foresight to anticipate, or
no disposition to provide against, a conclusion which even the
Attorney-General himself described as "so unsatisfac-
tory?" Is any man capable of believing that, if some
tailor or linen-draper had been indicted at the Old Bailey
for the crime of thinking that he had an " honour" to
vindicate as well as Noble Lords, and consequently pis-.
tolling and wounding one of his compeers—does any man
suppose that in this case we should have heard of any misnomer,
or name that could not be proved, running through three counts
of an indictment ? Oh, no ! We should then have had precau-
tion in abundance, and the charge would have run—" for that
the said Simon Snooks did, on or about the 12th day of Sep-
tember, maliciously shoot at and wound Joint Thomas Richard
Titmouse, otherwise John Thomas Titmouse, otherwise John.
Titmouse, otherwise Thomas Richard Titmouse, otherwise
Richard Titmouse," &c. Then there would have been ho
loop.hole left ; then even, if the Judge had kindly reminded
some material witness before his examination began, that he
need not answer a single question unless he liked, there would
have been no lack of friends and relations carefully
subpoenaed to prove all the Christian names of the
necessary party ; no Jury would have been left to
identify a man's place of residence by the testimony of wit-
nesses who never set foot within his doors. We doubt also—
we very much doubt—whether in such a case the prosecutor
would have gone studiously out of his way to aver that a-charge
of felonious shooting, with intent to murder, " did not imply,
any degree of moral turpitude ;" whether he would have been
in any haste to whitewash the prisoneraif all imputations on
the score of animosity, unfairness, &c. ; whether, finally, he
would have publicly declared, that although, if death had en-
sued, it would have been legally murder, still it would
have been considered only " a great calamity and not a
great crime."
The Morning Herald of this day contains a leading article
on the subject of some recent proceedings in the vestry of the
parish of Marylebone, in the course of which our Contemporary
observes :—" The concessions of the Clergy and Conserva-
tives of the parish to the low democrat's who have got an
ascendency in the Vestry, have had the most opposite to a
tranquillizieg effect upon parochial affairs of anything that can
be imagined."—The Morning Post, speaking of the Irish
Parliamentary representation, remarks as follows.—,, In ouT
opinion, the great bulk of the Romanist population of Ireland
are net in such a condition as should entitle thenr ta have
anything to do with the election of Legislators. They are
wholly incompetent to act with anything like good judgment
or independence in any such matter."—The Morning
Chronicle, recurring to the question of Lord Stanley's
Irish
Registration Bill says:—" It is impossible to read a single
clause of this Bill without seeing how completelye
ait
is framed in the spirit of jealous restriction and g
lawyer can under.
the technicality.
claimant
fTahkies,infotreninstance,
retgh
It is
altered
ifn_robzy
Reform Bill into a complex
the short and simple form of the
d fill up' without error. It se
stand, and none but a lawyer coull
ne, what s tof ' •
or registration,
evident, from the form of notice a o
legal agents, catching at every
and technical document, which none but a
ed
conducted entirely by hlr
opposite party's list of
technical objection to cut down the
d tiser observes, with ref
voters."—The Morning A ye?' "ow, to
dissolution of Parliament :—" The
the recent report of a
propagated by the Timesand ru-
mour so assiduously
ea• dissolution, other Tory
of an apprea utterly and totally
journals, Then';l'ories themselves'ls do
without foundation.not believe it,
as is evidenced
by two facts—the first, their large expenditure
of money in several recent elections in which they have been
successful; and the second, their activity in canvassing th e pre
sen
t constituents for their future votes. '

Died, on the 14th instant, at her residence, ire
Brill-ierrace' Somers-town, Mrs. Elizabeth Margaret, in the
77th year of her age. This lady was a strong,minded and in-
telligent uroman, and bore during her long illness hef sufferings'
with greatfortitude and resignation. She was the widow of
the celebrate,' Maurice Margarot, who was one of the Delp;
gates of the London Corresponding Society, to promote Par-
liamentary Refom, to the British Convention in 1793: he was
tried and expatriated by the Scotch Court of Justiciary to
New South Wales for a period of 14 years. She heroically
accompanied him to that inhospitable colony (at that time),
and remained during his protracted exile for 16 y
returned with him to this country in 1810, brokenh inoanalaloi:toUnntes
and greatly impaired in health. Margaret was ,
of the five Scotch Martyrs (Gerald, Muir, Palmer. Pealmery. and
Skirving) who lived to re-visit his native 1
58,16
great her
Her uncles left her a
privations, and severe pecuniary losses•
h she atanggled with grea
husband died, after suffering unparalleled apne(rsecultaionl
most scanty income,
the liberality of Lord Melbourne, who,
and handsomely bestowed
memorial presented to him, promptlyhundredunds from the Royal bounty,
difficulty to maintain herswelhfit‘a-itohof,ortenitoy yceoaorsse;qaunedneboutoffoar
upon her a
omepnts would have been embittered
her last remaining
and exemplary life •
vloirstso;esasnhdetrpuosstsesshstoCedv,
of a numerous circle of friends Olio moll, trsn-
by many privatiomamndto setvheere
honour of
ofShheerspt, ato longth
admiration
ialindmgetrriewvoithes
asularhinrcresv.she endured in this life. •
The Rev. Mr. Cooper, the Vicar of Old Wind-
sor,the regretm atii}err
received on Thursday last the sum of 201. from her Ma
cerely andarddeefpolry
jesty, through the medium of Sir Henry Wheatley, G.C. H. -0
relieve the necessities of the, numerous poor in that parish.