The Sun.
London, England, 1801-04-03 00:00:00

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•
SUMS.C.AT
TRIAL OF HENRI' PENSON,

SENTENCED TO ISE FOR; SHEEN-STEALING, AT
EXETER ASSIZE; ON SATURDAY, MARCH' 24;
ISO!.

.
Hellly PVISOff, „a' person of considerable property,
resident at Teignmouth, was indicted for stealing a
fat wether sheep, the property of Thomas Mills,
butcher, of the same place.
Onithepaft of the Prosecution, • it appeared, that
Milfi'rented a field of:Penson, distant about a quar.';
ter of a mile from Penson's house.; :that Penson was
in this field on Friday eivenirtg, ~ the 6th of March,
about five o'clock ; that Mills's..sheep were all there
about half past five, and that one of the fattest etas
missing at seven next morning ; that Penson's maid
asked her master, on Saturday, if she should be-
speak the butcher's meat, and he answered he had
provided already ; but no meat was brought to his
house that day ; that on .Stinday morning Penton
brought in a neck of mutton, bidding the maid roast
the long bones for dinner ; and that a leg was hung,
up in the dairy by a hand unknown ; that hpy
afterwards discovered a breast, 'shoulder, and loin
of mutton, very fat, and somewhat dirty, wrapt in
a cloth, in a corn-chest in his master's stable ; that,
while the long bones were roasting, Penson told the
maid, Butcher Drake's boy had cut up the meat in
an awkward manner ; that the leg was drest on the
succeeding days, and on Tuesday a loin hung in the
dairy, that in the corn-chest being gone, and a
sheep's skin found concealed in the hay-l Oft ; that
the back bone had not bein equally divided in halves,
in abutcherlike way; that Mills got a warrant on
Friday, and went with two constables to Penson's
house ; that Penson, seeing them coming (Drake
being one constable), asked his boy if he had told
any one what he had said of Butcher Drake's box'
cutting the meat badly ; that the skin, which ap-
peared to have been taken off some days, was found
hid in the hay-loft, and the breast of mutton cut
unfashionably, but no shoulder, was found in a cloth,
in the corn-chest in • the stable; that the ear yand
pitch marks and qualities of the .skin and meat were
the sanaz as those of the sheep lost by Mills ; that
the legs lad been cut ~froma,the.' skin at the wrong
joints ; that Drake's boaltati.oee-eteut up a sheep
in his life, nor had Dratt:sold Pcnsen auy mutton
fora month:, that whilst conveyineenson to High.
Gaol, resting at Newton: on. Friday:night,. Penson.
requested the constables. to..let hint escape in the
dark, and proposed to give them a bond for eoool..
that he would appear .at the •Assizes on Monday ;
and that while in the street at Newton, he endea. •
%toured to run of; but the constable having •hold of
his
.skirt,, he was prevented. .
On the part of the Priionee., it appeared, that he
had a stack of hay in the 'field Milts rented, which
field was to revert to him' On Saturday, March 7th;
that the doors of the stable and hay-loft had not been
locked many months ; that several inhabited cot.
cages adjoined the .stable-yard, 'Which had also an
entrance from the street ; that Bowden, a labourer,
.who lived in one. of the cots,' often attended Penson's
hoises, 'and lodged tools in the stable ; when
the constables teold Penson they' ivere'cOme-to.Ostra
his premises.. he said they_were welcome so to do
that he might have escaped whilst they were search-
ing, and voluntarily went to the Justice ; that he
offered the 59061. bond only 'as a security for his •
appearing at the Assizes.
The Prisoner 'presented a written Address to the
Jury, which laid great stress on the improbability
that a man in his affluent circumstances should corn.
mit so mean a theft, and thus risk his own lite and
the happiness of several children, who ware, by his
endeavours, now placed in situations of repute and
comfort ; or that he should have put the mutton in
a place, to which his servants and neighbours bad
free access ; or that he should neglea an escape, and
go willingly to a Magistrate, after the mutton was
tbunZl in his premises. The Paper suggested, that
his enemies (for enemies, it said, he had) might have
placed the mutton there, to bring disgrace upon him;
that he 'could prove he was at Exeter on the Friday
evening, March 6, antioften purchased meat there.
To support the allegations of this Paper, four
Witnesses were called. -2. The first.said, he was
stingy man in household expense, sometitnes had meat
from Exeter. The other three said,
,he had been
lately • in . Exeter on a Friday, but could not say,
whether-March 6, or Friday before. Neither Wit.
ness could prove he had mutton in Exeter. It was
also stated in evidence, that when last in Exeter,
he appeared so rheumatically weak as• to be unable to
catch and -kill the sheep lost.
To.refute this, fotmer Witnesses were called, who
re-asserted he was at Teignmouth in the afternOon'
of Friday, March 6, worked then in a field adjoin-
ing' Mills's and made no camplaint of rheuma-
.tisrn,

Judge LE BLANC sunamed up the evidence with
stria diserimination of each circumstance .for and
against! he Prisoner ; expressed fiis regret that a
man. of his estate could not produce evidente, if he
had so lately bought the mutton fairly ; suggested
that he might have. an accomplice in the that ; or
might have bought it after stolen, and, if so, must
be .acquitted ; but exhorted the Jury, after giKing
alt due weight to his wealth, as a.presumption for
his innocence, not to let it operate •as a check- on
their, verdia, if,. from the whole evidence, they
should not doubt his guilt.
Not a single evidence could,be procured to teak,
faOurably• of ,his cbaratler, hit whole rife having
been one scene of fraud and oppreisibtL
The verdiA of the Jury gave the greatest sitis.
fadion to a crowded Court.

Citizen. LALANDE 11:1S annoptlced, that at prey
sent all the planets arc collated in the horizon{;
and that •Yenus appears so remarkably- brilliant,
that a great. number of people have. thought it was
a comet, or a new, star. The fad is, that this extra-
ordinary•brilliancy of Venus returns t ury nine-
teen months. The sensation which this .pheno-
Tenon produced, when the conquero► Of Ititirre.
turned to Paris in 1797 may be reconciled, It
was then openly said, that it was the-Comet of Bo-