eserter,
and punished accordingly; he must have appeared when summoned, at all
hazards, whatever might have been the circumstances of his family, or
the state of his private affairs; had he been encumbered with debt,
he must have either incurred the penalties of this law, or lain at the
mercy of his creditors; had he acquired by industry, or received by
inheritance, an ample fortune, he would have been liable to be torn from
his possessions, and subjected to hardships which no man would endure
but from the sense of fear or indigence. The bill was so vigorously
opposed by sir John Barnard and others, as a flagrant encroachment upon
the liberties of the people, that the house rejected it on the second
reading.

PORTO BELLO TAKEN by ADMIRAL VERNON.

The king having by message communicated to the house his intention of
disposing of the princess Mary in marriage to prince Frederick of Hesse;
and expressing his hope that the commons would enable him to give a
suitable portion to his daughter, they unanimously resolved to grant
forty thousand pounds for that purpose; and presented an address of
thanks to his majesty for having communicated to the house this intended
marriage. On the thirteenth day of March a ship arrived from the West
Indies, despatched by admiral Vernon, with an account of his having
taken Porto Bello, on the isthmus of Darien, with six ships only, and
demolished all the fortifications of the place. The Spaniards acted with
such pusillanimity on this occasion, that their forts were taken almost
without bloodshed. The two houses of parliament joined in an address of
congratulation upon the success of his majesty's arms; and the nation
in general was wonderfully elated by an exploit which was magnified
much above its merit. The commons granted every thing the crown
thought proper to demand. They provided for eight-and-twenty thousand
land-forces, besides six thousand marines. They enabled his majesty
to equip a very powerful navy; they voted the subsidy to the king
of Denmark; and they empowered their sovereign to defray certain
extraordinary expenses not specified in the estimates. To answer these
uncommon grants, they imposed a land-tax of four shillings in the pound;
and enabled his majesty to deduct twelve hundred thousand pounds from
the sinking fund; in a word, the expense of the war, during the course
of the ensuing year, amounted to about four millions. The session was
closed on the twenty-ninth