The Sun.
London, England, 1825-07-15 00:00:00

U 1~1:

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aberrations of intellect, he could hardlY,be said, to have. labour..
ed under that misfortune to day on making his ,del'enee.•
Jury would consider the probability of what he haft state&ss' •
the. cause of his taking the cheeses, and would: act on it occord.i.
ingly.—The Jury returned a verdict of Not
Mr. Justice GaZELEE then stated, that heunderstood
was not the first time the prisoner_ had stood at the bar; eharke4 •
with having committed a practical joke of this nature.'
former offence, however, had been committed When the pri.. .
:miser was; under the influence of liquor, a small quantity '
which affected him very much, inconsequence of a . wound he
had formerly received. Ills Lordship' seriously, advised •the ,
prisoner to abstain equally froiliiiniulging in the'uile of liquor,
.and from the.practice of playing off a practical :Joke of Mi.:it
kind, which roight_be attended with such serious ,conseque.nces..
The prisOner thanked his Lordship for the advise, which .
promised strictly to folio*.
• Cittarler, 71:14mry was convicted of having feloniously stolen,. •
011 the 6th of May last, from the house of Thomas .Bye; at
Charity, in this county; two country one-pound notes, and fcb.r
ehillings. The witnesses for the prosecution having 'proved. the-
Case, stated that the prisoner had suddenly repented ofthe theft,
a:d acknowledged his_guilt.. It appeared that sioo.e his: ecru:,.
:Mtn:lent to j:igl'he- bad. Condtk ted.hiinself'.nry properly.
Mr. justice. GAZELEE passed sentence 'of Death Ontheprii.
soner, but remarked,:that from what - had appeared to-day of ;.-
theprisOner's conduct imm'ediately subsequent to the theft,
was happy to say he_ believed the sentence would not be carried
into execution. • •

OXFORD CIRCUIT, _,Api NaDoN, JULY 12.
The civil business being gone through, Mr. Justice Butt.%
RO UGH proceeded with the trials of prisoners.- : ' '-
Before Mr. Justice BURROUGH. : • •
Wm. Nichols and John Pill "were indicted.. for stealing
sheep, the property of James Parker. • ' •
Mr.. SHEPHERD conducted the prosecution.
Mr. Parker said-1 live at 17.th:eon. I missed a sheep on
the 23d of April; and lbund it again in:Mr: Money's fcld on the
28th of May. " •
Cross-examined by; Mr. ct.fa.WooD----The prisoners.. are
labouring men. It.is not uncommon for sheep to stray. •
Stephen Gorton said, I was shepherd to the prosecutor ; I
missed the sheep on the 21st of April; I -have hot' the least
knowledge of the day on which it was lost.
Cross.examined by Mr. CtntwooD—l did .not count the
sheep every morning, because my master was ill.
Examined by the Learned JUDGE-,The sheep were folded,
and used to break out. They were folded day and night, and
never let out.

Mr. Justice BußllollGH—That'S impossible.
The witness—The last time I counted the sheep was a month'
before ; but I know this sheep to be my master's. He was
marked by a slit on the ear. It was not a halfpenny cut. Tlis
sheep was a woolly-headed, sour-looking sheep. - We have-got
him in Court. -

Mr. Cultwoor•--As I came into Court I saw the sheep
standing near the witneSs-box, with a subpoena tied round Ins
neck.

The witpess-1 am quite positive that it ,is ouraheep bg th-e •
slit in his ear.
Mr. CunwOoD—Vou had better gei yonr own ear slit; ti, t`
you may know yourself again if you should get 'lost.
The witness{witli perfect simplicity)—Yes, Sir—(Laughter)
-A. Spinage said, he saw the prisoner with the sheep, who ,
said belied bought it of Mr. Seery, and that the witness askid
to purchase it but he would not sell it. ,
Wm? Money, a farmer,iproved that he hattbought the sheep .
of the prisoner Pill for 305., but he did not pay him, for it, and
Pill sent•the prisoner Nichols for the • money a week or ticks '
afterwards.

Several other witnesses were.called, but they „carried the case
no further.

The Learned JUDGE called on theprisoners for their de-
fence, but thefr 'Counsel said he should. advise them not to
make any to so lathe a case.
Two 'respectable farmers'give them both a very excellent.cha-
racter.

The Learned JUDGE told the Jury that, in his opinion, there
was no evidence against Nichols ; and, in his view of, the case.
nor enough to warrant the conviction of Pill ; but that was for
them to consider. •

The Jury consulted together for upwards of half an hour,
when they said they found both the prisoners Guilty. _
Mr. Justice BURROUGH—The verdict is yours, and 'riot
mine; and'you may therefore find such verdict as you think t
right; but as to Nichols, there is not a shadow of evidence—
against him, whateier there may be against Pill.
One of,the Jury—We think that Pill stole the sheep, and
Nichols helped him to do so.
Mr. Justice BuRROUGH—There is no evidence at all against
Nichols. '

The Jury, after some further deliberation, found Pill duilti,
and Nichols Not Guilty. . •

lIORSIIAM QUARTER SESSIONS:

At:these Sessions, holden on Tuesday last,' Mary Hton-
Arty, aged 21 years, a young woman ofinteresting appearance,
was indicted for stealing a lace veil, value 205., one pair of silk
stockings,' a silk' handkerchief, cambric ditto, and various
other articles. - ' •
The prisoner was brought to the Sessions from the Petworth ;
HoUse of Correction, to which she had been committed.on the
25th of April; by *John Wakefield, Esq., a Magistrate for the
County," charged on the oath ofthe.Reverend-Edward Robt7t
Butcher, with stealing, in the town of Nirrirxhing,one silk hand.
kerchief, and one cambric handl:et:chief, of the value of 25. the
property of the said Edward Robert Butcher." She had, it
appeared, been a fayourite servant of Mrs. Butcher,:whose.ser.
vice she had quittecl:about three weeks before this :charge:lva!'
brought against her, and when apprehended was.in the service
s.
of the Duchess.of Hamilton, at Brighton.. On her exanaina. •
tion before the. Magistrate, the, prosecutor . swore, that Mrs..-
nutcher, a material witness in the case, was prevented by
ness from attending.• That lady wag sent for by the Magistrate.
-but did not attend, nor slid :she appear on the prisoner's:trial
at Horsham. .. • 4
The prisoaer, in her &fence, said the articles which she ,was ,
charged with .having 'stolen had been presented to her by 19rii.
Butcher, and this statement was in part confirmed by•the evi.
deuce of Helen ,Cook, a person living at the same time in the I
service of the Doctor; and by that of a Mr. Cranston, of
'Worthing. The latter 'also stated; that at the time when'it was -
sworn by the prosecutor that Mrs: Butcher was ill,, and -.unable • !
to attend before the klagistrate, that lady was at the house of
witness, about a quarter of a mile distant from her awn
residence, and that therefore she could not have been too ill :a '
attend at the Magistrate's which was .not more than.lso yards
distant. -

' The Jury would not trouble the Court to sum up tbe evtderce,
but stated that they had long since been satiglied. They
stantly returned, a verdict. of—Not Guilty.
-= Hurst, Esq., one of the Bench of Justices, declared that
in the whole cburse of his life (a period of more than half a '
century) he had never known so gross a prosecution stain. -
.Court of Justice. ,
Application was afterwards made by the prisoner's Counsel .;
for a•copy of the record, on which to ground a prosecution
against her prosecutor. The application was,. immediately
granted by the Court. it
The trial lasted.three hours and a half, and the prisoner whn
appeared in a fainting state, was allowed by the Court to he
seated, the fatigue being greater than her constitution could ' •
support. She was treated during the trial with the most bu 7
mane attention by the governor of that prison.

,•

TTHUNDERSTORN..—On Monday. last-A. :rno.kt,. :
terrific thunder-storm broke over Apperley-court-house„ ,in. - -.
which the proprietors (the Ladies Strickland) were sitting, bbt • ,
fortunately they, with all the family, escaped,unhurti,whieb is • ~i''
the more miraculous, as there is not a coiner of the Lui443g:
on which the lightning did not leave some marks of ,its awful;
visitation. It struck a chimney, unroofing that part of the - '
house, burst out a large space Of.a•wall,. threwdbwp. the coping
stones, ar.d scattered .them in pieces . over..,:the gr,a,'yel :w4.44- ;t,
arid shivered one entire Window, and its caking 43 atoms., bp rn- ,t,
..
ink, the pdper an&stripping thegola ?coUltifngs ofilie 'afaullg-
.rorp.i, The crash wbich:occomplutitiatthrlightning can teviii, tl.,
befprgolten Py,.tliose,who hea,T4 iXT9N.I. e.thtuuleil,pu;.;4,..
b frementitilts • exploSibr),- Die the. ti iDr ' cannon, in.tile
traoltlr''' `ll4 honse ;wills at ifitt4 ' rao**ll teivith'i a1i,... :-,
It
-114‘4coPi Smr*Vand Yelclteteki,446,sky; Atm.-inmate 70i- tisi 1. .
walls was kovidetitiall, preserved. The storm extended to
thoucester,,Tewkesbury, and Winchcomb : the thunderclouds
passed over this town during the day, and burst on the Cots-
wold hills.—(Cheltenham Clsronkk.)