Mr. Humepresented a Petition from Joseph Townshend Harman, who had been sentenced to be confined in the King's Bench Prison for six months, for writing and publishing a Libel, although he had proved that the contents of the Libel were true. The petitioner stated, that the power which persons, however, criminal, at present possessed of prosecuting persons, however virtuous, who should tell the truth respecting them, was subversive of the just liberty of the subject; and the petitioner prayed that the Law of Libel might be forth with amended. The hon. Member supported the prayer of the petition, and expressed a hope that the time was not far distant at which the law would be so altered as to allow the truth of the allegations contained in alleged libels to be proved in evidence on all prosecutions for libel. He was one of those who held that the truth never could be a libel.
§ The petition was ordered to be printed.