ROASTING THE BIBLE.
On the presentation of a petition from Manchester last week, Mr. Hunt saw fit to state that it bad been got up by a person named Smith- son, who was an Atheist, and had on one occasion roasted his Bible. A petition from Smithson was presented by Mr. Strickland on Monday, stating both charges to be untrue. But the Honourable House, which makes no scruple of allowing its members to indulge in the most in- famous libels on all occasions, would not receive the petition, for- sooth, because it complained of what had been spoken in Parliament. Yet we were gravely told, on Mr. Perceval's motion the other day, that even what was spoken in Parliament might go forth by con- nivance; and a learned distinction was attempted to be drawn between the breach of privilege committed in reporting a speech when the standing order was in quasi abeyance, and when it was, on specia notice, in full force. The distinctions, however, drawn by the House, are hardly ever by any chance on the side of justice. Mr. Smithson cannot, cf course, prosecute Hunt—he is safe under his privilege ; and to prosecute the newspapers, would only be to shift the punishment from the shoulders of the guilty to those of the innocent.
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