A LETTER To His most Excellent Majesty King William III SHOWING, 

I. The Original Foundation of the English Monarchy.  
II. The Means by which it was removed from that Foundation.  
III. The Expedients by which it has been supported since that Removal.  
IU. It's present Constitution, as to all its integral Parts.  
V The best Means by which its Grandeur may be for ever maintained.    
The Third Edition.  
LONDON, Printed by J. Derby in Bartholomew Close, and sold by A. Baldwin in Warwicklane. M. DC.XC.IX.  
Price 3 d.   

SIR,  
A Well-meaning and dutiful Subject humbly begs your Majesty to read this Letter, which is written with no other design than only to set before you, 

I. What was the ancient Foundation of the English Monarchy.  
II. How it was removed from its natural Foundation.  
III. By what Expedients it has been supported since that Removal.  
iv By what Expedient your Majesty may support the Monarchy during your Reign (which I pray God may be long and happy) and also raise it to as high a degree of Glory as ever it attained heretofore. Under which Head is included its present Constitution as to all its integral Parts.    

I. The Monarchy of England was settled upon an overbalance of Lands vested in the King, the Nobility, and the Church, who anciently possessed above two thirds of the whole English Territory: But the Noblemen held their Lands upon condition, that they should assist the King on all his Occasions with certain Quotas of Men well armed and paid: And then these Noblemen let out their Lands to their Tenants on condition they should always be ready to follow their respective Lords to the War as often as the King had any occasion for their Service. So that very small Rents were demanded by the Lord from the Tenants, because he had contracted for their Personal Service.  
'Twas this disposition of Lands which enabled our former Kings to raise great Armies when they pleased, and to invade France (their natural Enemy) with success: and hereby it was that the Nobility upheld the Grandeur of the King at home as well as abroad; and at the same time they were a shelter and defence to the common People, if the King were inclined to make any Encroachments upon them. For the overbalance of Propriety (and consequently their greatest natural Power) was vested in the middle state of Nobility; who were therefore able to preserve both King and People in their due bounds.  
Thus the English Monarchy stood upon a natural Foundation, the King being the great Landlord of his People, who were all bound by their Tenors (in subordination to one another) to support his Crown and Dignity.   

II. This ancient Foundation of the English Monarchy was sapped and undermined by K. Henry the Seventh, who (having seen the Imperial Crown of England disposed at the pleasure of the Lords that had maintained a War against the Crown for near 400 years) could not but be much concerned at the overgrown Power of the Peers, who sometimes would pull down and set up what King they pleased; and this Consideration made K. Henry the Seventh seek after ways and means how to lessen the Power of the Lords, which had been so prejudicial to the Crown: and seeing that their overgrown Power was supported by the great Territories of Land of which they were possessed, and which they could not alienate from their Heirs, He by the help of his Parliament found out a way to change the Tenure of Lands in such a manner that the Tenant should be obliged only to pay a Rent instead of Personal Service to his Landlord: and also a way was found out for the Lords to alienate their Lands from their Posterity. This was done to the end the Lords might be encouraged by an expensive way of living to sell their Lands, and that the Commons who lived thriftily might be enabled to purchase them. Hereby it came to pass that at the end of King Henry the Eighth's Reign (in whose time most part of the Church-Lands were also sold to the People) the common People of England had near two thirds of the Lands of England in their proper Possession, and the King, Lords, and Church little more than one third part; whereby the Balance was turned on the side of the Commons, who were therefore able to make War upon the King, Lord and Church together, as appeared afterwards in the Reign of King Charles the First.  
Thus it appears that the ancient Foundation of the English Monarchy was removed in the Reign of K. Henry the Seventh; and the overbalance of Lands failing from the Lords to the Commons, 'tis evident that the Monarchy has ever since stood not upon an Aristocratical, but a Popular Foundation; and such a Foundation does naturally support none but Commonwealth Forms of Government. Wherefore a Monarchy supported on such a Foundation may properly be called a Government of Expedients, because it is by Expedients and Inventions, and not upon any bottom of its own that it subsists. Now what Expedients our Kings have used to support the Monarchy is the next thing to be considered. Wherefore,   

III. The Balance of Lands being changed by the end of K. Henry the Eighth's Reign, from the Lords and Church to the Commons of England, 'tis past all doubt but that Queen Elizabeth discovered the popular bottom of the Monarchy, because she found out the only wise Expedient by which the Monarchy upon its new Foundation was capable of being supported in its ancient Lustre and Glory. Her Expedient was her Popularity, by which she accommodated her personal Administration to the true Genius of the Monarchical Constitution as it then stood. For the whole Reign of that Queen (of Glorious Memory) though long, but not tedious, was passed over in a constant Courtship to her People, in which not only all her Actions, but sometimes her very Words expressed her knowledge, that the Monarchy was then founded on their Affections. In what Glory she supported herself and the English Monarchy by that Expedient of Popularity, notwithstanding very great Oppositions from the preeminent Powers of Europe, her History does sufficiently explain.  
King James the First was not in his nature inclined to pursues this honourable and proper Expedient, but his thoughts seemed to be set on his own Power more than upon his People's Good; whereby it came to pass that the Flattery of the Court was more pleasing to him than the general Interest of his Kingdom. And having got some superficial skill in the Arts and Sciences, and a profound knowledge (as he thought) in Theology, he made his Court to the Divines of the Church of England, that they being apprized of his great Learning might in their Writings celebrate his Fame, and insinuate to the People his great Knowledge in all sorts of Divine and Human Learning. Hereupon at his first coming to the Crown of England he industriously assisted the Bishops and Church-Party against the Puritans; whom the Church looked upon as no less than her Enemies, because though they could endure, yet they did not admire her Bishops and Ceremonies. And in this manner that King found out his Expedient in the Church-party, which admired and almost adored his deep Learning, oftentimes comparing him to King Solomon for Wisdom, and indeed omitted no opportunity which might gain him an extraordinary Reverence among the People.  
'Tis not then to be wondered at that King Charles the First trod in the steps of his Father, and pursued the same Expedient which had been successful to his Father, especially having derived from him the same Temper of Mind, and being well pleased to have for his Flatterers the gravest of Divines; whose Courtship ever tended to aggrandise the King by enlarging the Royal Prerogative, and to set it above the Laws of the Realm, by virtue of some political Doctrines which they drew from the Word of God. From hence sprang the Divine Right by which those Kings were said to reign over us, and a Divine Right of Succession to the Crown of England was derived to their Posterity. But yet King Charles the First laid too great a weight upon this Expedient, and encouraged it too much, even when the People began to be sensible that the Pulpit-Law did build the King's Prerogative upon the Ruins of the People's Liberty: And herewith began the quarrel of the People against that King, in which he lost his Life; and the Monarchy, losing its Expedient of the Church party, was likewise overthrown.  
After this an Essay was made to introduce a Commonwealth-form of Government, but it was interrupted by a Standing Army, which with their arbitrary and uncertain ways of Administration at last tired out the People, that they restored the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second; who being the Son of the Royal Martyr, was entitled to all that Assistance which the Church was capable of giving: and there was one thing more which made the Churchmen exert all their Powers with the greatest vigour in favour of their restored King, which was this.  
The Clergy and their Party having been ill treated since the downful of King Charles the First, and being again restored with Charles the Second to their former Dignities, they were highly animated against the Presbyterians, by whom they had been provoked in the late Interregnum, so that nothing was more in their Desires than to be avenged of their Enemies; and this Master-passion of theirs was so well gratified by their King, who granted severe Laws against all Dissenters from the Church, that no Prince ever gained the Hearts of the Clergy and their whole Party more entirely to his Interest than Charles the Second. No Vice or Lewdness could slain the Reputation of the Martyr's Son; but though he were the greatest Encourager of all Profaneness and Immorality in the most open manner, yet still he was our most Religious and Gracious King. In his time all Atheists, Debauchees and lose Persons owned the Church of England for their Mother; which numerous Party enlarging the Pale of the Church, assisted very much to advance the Power of the King upon the foundation of the Divine Right which it was said God had given him: so that the universal Acclamation was, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. and great is the Jure divino King, the Image which fell down from Jupiter!  
But notwithstanding this loud Acclamation, the cautious King, who in his Youth had been forced to travel into foreign Countries, and was unwilling to take such another Journey, did not think fit to rely wholly upon this Church-Expedient, but to give it greater strength he twisted into it a Court-party, who by their Places and Pensions were obliged to assist his Royal Pleasure by their Votes in both Houses of Parliament: and thus the Monarchy had its Foundation laid in Place and Pension, which by angry People is call'● BRIBERY. But let that be as it will, 'tis certain that Men can never act so vigorously for a Bribe, as out of mere Inclination. Besides this, mercenary Men are soon discovered in their Designs, and the discovery of their Principle forfeits all their Credit with the People. So that a small steady Country Party in Parliament were a great clog upon the Projects of Church and Court, which, though so closely united together, proved but a lame Expedient to support the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second; so that between these two stools he sell at last to the ground, but not without thoughts of the only Expedient by which he might (had he lived) have established himself upon the foundation of the People of England.  
King James the Second would not trust to any of the foremention'd Expedients, because none of them could be sufficient to carry him thro' all his Designs, especially thro' that of introducing Popery. Nothing less than a standing Army could support his Tyranny, but Popery was too great a weight for the Army to stand under: So that while he was subduing the People to Popery by a Protestant Army, he lost both People and Army; in consequence whereof he was lost himself. And that the loss of him may by means of your Majesty's happy Reign be a Gain to England, it is to be considered,   

iv By what Expedient your Majesty may support the English Monarchy during your Reign, and by which you may raise it to as eminent a degree of Glory as it ever attained heretofore.  
Your Majesty may remember that the original foundation of the Monarchy was the great Territory of Land possessed by the King: but your Majesty is also sensible that there are but very small Remainders of this Territory in your present Possession; even the very accidental additions of Lands to the Crown have been alienated to the Favourites of the Scotish Line: So there is need of an Expedient now as much as ever for the support of the Monarchy.  
Be pleased therefore to review the Expedients of former Princes, end see if any of them be suitable to your particular Circumstances, or proper for your Majesty to depend upon for the Support and Glory of your Throne. And,  
As for the Church-party, which was the darling Support of the Scotish Line, it is so much worn-out by a Succession of three Kings, that 'tis very weak and feeble at present. The Craft of the Priest, which consists in framing such Interpretations of holy Scripture as serve an indirect Interest, was never discovered so much as of late, and no Person has so much contributed to the discovery hereof as your own self; who by the Revolution you have lately made have reversed all the Political Divinity which the Clergy have been propagating since the Reign of King James the First. 'Twas the Church Clergy and Party who by their preaching and voting opposed the Bill for excluding James D. of York, a known Papist: 'Twas this Party who imposed upon the Nation the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to a Tyrannical King upon pain of eternal Damnation: They always avowed the divine right of a Lineal Succession to the Crown (by which your Majesty is excluded) and that all Kings are of God's (not the People's) making. From those Principles some of 'em openly refused to swear Allegiance to your Majesty; and those of them who yield a passive Conformity to your Title and Government, have been found in several differing stories about the ways and means whereby they satisfy their Consciences in this matter. Some have alleged, that your Majesty having conquered us, they may lawfully submit to a Usurpation which cannot be avoided, and is settled by success: but all of 'em know that your Majesty can make Bishops and Deans de facto, and therefore they will not question the Defactoship of your Prerogative Royal. But it cannot be expected that the Clergy, who have usually required the People's submission to their Sentiments under the pain of Damnation, should upon this Revolution be contented to cry peccavi, and openly recant all their former Dectrines of divine Polity by a hearty active conformity to your Majesty's rightful Title and Government. For this reason it is you have received so little respect from the body of the Clergy, though we have received all that we enjoy from you.  
But yet suppose the Church were willing to exert itself in your Service, its Influence is not at present so powerful as it has been: for by meddling so much in State-Affairs she has lost (in great measure (her former Reputation: Nor has she near so numerous a Party as formerly she had: for all the Deists, Socinians, and Latitudinarians own no such Church-power at all. The Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, and Quakers. though they have their several forms of Church Government, yet are no friends to that publicly established, but they are unfeigned lovers of your Majesty, Bigotry likewise has lately suffered a great diminution, and Incredulity is strangely increased, and almost become fashionable. Thus the Authority of the Church is forced to submit to the Reason of Mankind; and all those who are dutiful to your Majesty, are to averse to the Homilies of the Church, because they exclude you from all pretence of Right to the Crown you wear: So that the Toleration granted by your Majesty has done you more Service than Uniformity can ever do.  
As for the Court-party 'twas never esteemed to he any more than an Auxiliary to the Church for the support of K. Charles II. in whose Reign too it was discovered that after a Catalogue of Court-Pensioners was published from the Press, the Complexion of his Parliaments was very much changed. And if at any time such a List should be printed, the People of England would refuse to give their Votes for them in the next Election of a Parliament, and in their stead will elect Members of a contrary temper: People commonly run out of one extreme into another; and when they reject a Courtier, they will probably choose a morose-humored Man in his place.  
It must be allowed that it has the face of a polity Expedient to adopt Men of known Integrity and Love to their Country into the Court-party; for hereby the Hearts of the People will be for the present gained to the Court: though these Patriots being endued with a ductile temper, will soon become conformable to the nature of the Court. This very Expedient has for a time done good Service to your Majesty's Affairs both at home and abroad. But I think it ought to be considered only as a Cordial which for a short time may revive a languishing Man's Spirit, but yet ought not to be depended upon as a constant support of Life. And as for these new Whig-Courtiers, they will raise the Expectations of all Men to hope for a steady virtuous Administration. But when this reputed Patriot shall accommodate his Discourse to the old style of the Court; when he shall insinuate such Notions to his old Acquaintance, the baseness and unworthiness whereof his old Friends had heard him frequently detest all his days in which he was preferred; this new Courtier soon loses all his Credit and Interest with his old Friends, who refuse to follow the Decoy Duck into the Net.  
But this is not all the mischief which attends this Project of a Whig-Courtier, but a personal loss of your own Reputation is actually the Consequence hereof: for as long as the Court was made up of Tories, the People were willing to excuse your Majesty, and lay the faults of Male administration upon the Tory-Court, saying, That the old Tools would still do no other than the old Work. But when a Man of known Honour, Integrity and Love to his Country, upon getting a Preferment shall change his former Note, do Violence to himself by changing his avowed Principle, and thereby losing all the Reputation which his former Virtue had gained him, every Man will be apt to conclude that this new Courtier is encouraged to do this by some higher Power, if not engaged thereto by the fear of losing his Place or Pension. And when the People of England shall come to know that as surely as a Land-man who is employed at Sea will turn Seaman, a Patriot employed in the Administration will turn Courtier, they will begin in earnest to think of such a Form of Government as can subsist without a Court.  
And having said this, I cannot forbear telling your Majesty my Thoughts concerning a Commonwealth Party which has been much talked of in England during the Reign of K. Charles the Second, and has not quite been forgotten at any time since,  
A great Veneration for Monarchy has been frequently made use of by Men to recommend themselves to the particular favour of our Kings of England; and when real occasions have been wanting to recommend their Affection for Monarchy to the notice of the King, a mere fantastical imaginary fear of a Commonwealth has been made use of: hence they have been persuading our Sovereign Princes that a great number of their Subjects have formed themselves upon Commonwealth Principles, and are still waiting an opportunity to extirpate the Monarchy, and to introduce into its place a Republican form of Government. But your Majesty has seen this fantastical Opinion sufficiently confuted: For those who were the suspected Commonwealthsmen joined hearty together in preserving the Monarchy, by voting your Majesty (than Prince of Orange) into the English Throne, in opposition to those Adorers of Monarchy who were setting up a Regency; who had they put the Kingly Power into the hands of a Committee, had founded a Commonwealth, or something very hardly to be distinguished from it. But to proceed from matter of Fact, to reason freely upon this matter. I cannot suppose any man who has the use of his Reason, and lives under a Monarchy, to be fond of a Commonwealth, if all the ends of Government are answered by the settled Monarchy. So in Holland he would be thought to have lost the use of his Reason, who should hazard his Life by endeavouring to introduce a Monarchy there, where all the ends of Government are perfectly answered by the established form of a Commonwealth. The end of all Governments is the common good of the People; and if that great End be attained under any established Form, he is fit only for a Mad-house who will endeavour to pull down the established form only to introduce a new one: And a Party of such mad men as these can never be sufficient to raise a jealousy in any Government which is under an upright Administration. Tho it must also be acknowledged, that as corrupt Prelates make way for a Presbyterian Government into the Church, so a corrupt Court-party may occasionally introduce a Republican form of Government into the State. Besides, there is no man who understands the political Structure of the English Monarchy, but will find it so agreeable to the Interest of a free People, that nothing can be added to it to render it more perfect: and it is particularly manifest, that all the Advantages which may be supposed to arise from a Commonwealth, may be as freely and fully derived from the Temper of the English Monarchy; as may thus appear.  
If any man would know what is the Constitution of the Government under which he lives, there are but two things to be done in order thereunto. 1. He may consider the nature of Sovereign Power in relation to all those particular integrating parts out of which it is formed and composed: And 2. It will be also needful to consider in what Persons these integral parts of Sovereign Power are vested and lodged. For every independent Government comprehends a Sovereign Power within itself, and is specified by the different Lodgement of the parts of that Sovereignty.  
Now the integrating parts which compound Sovereign Power are these:  

1. Legislative Power, or Authority to make Laws.  
2. Executive Power, which consists in creating Officers to execute the Laws, and discharge all the Functions of the Government according to Law.  
3. A Power of making War and Peace.  
4. A Power of raising Money for support of the Government either in War or Peace.  
5. The last Appeal in all cases of Law. To which may be added,  
6. The Power over the Mint.   
And of these six parts of Sovereign Power, 'tis notorious that there are but one moiety lodged in the Person of the King of England, viz. The executive Power, the Power of War and Peace, and the Coinage. And of these three branches of Royal Power, the Executive (which is the greatest) is so limited, that the King▪ cannot employ any man in Civil or Military Office under him, but such a one who is qualified by Laws of the People's making. And though the power of War be vested in the King, yet the Commons have reserved to themselves the power of raising Money, without which no War can be carried on. As for the Coinage, 'tis only an honorary Trust, rather than any real Power. But in the Legislature (which is the greatest point of Sovereign Power) 'tis certain that the Commons have their share, insomuch that no Law can be enacted without their Authority. And they also having the power of opening the Purse of the Nation, 'tis certain that no War can be carried on without their Consent. The last Appeal in Suits of Law is usually made to the House of Lords.  
And as long as this happy Constitution shall be preserved from the power of Violence and Fraud, I cannot tell what to wish for which may be of greater advantage to the People of England.  
But yet nothing is more notoriously known than chat in the four last Reigns many Church-arts and Court-practices were used to break in upon this happy Constitution, by raising the Power of the King above what it ought to be, and by reducing the Commons to a narrower compass of Power than what of Right belongs to them. And 'tis also very well known, that whosoever have shown their Resentments hereupon, have been represented as Commonwealthsmen and Antimonarchical. But though these men were declared Enemies to the Turkish and French forms of Monarchy, 'twas very visible that they were me truest Lovers of English Monarchy, because their Behaviour provoked only that sort of men who were promoting such Principles and Practices as tended to change some part of that Constitution. Upon the whole matter, a Commonwealth-form of Government can never be received among us in England, but only as the last Refuge, when the Church-party and Court-party have, thro' corruption, subverted the admirable Constitution of English Monarchy. But to return from this Digression, since Priest-craft and Court-craft have been of late so much discovered; since Bigotry of late days is grown out of request; since the unbigotted People are more dutiful to your Majesty than the Bigots are; and since the common People of England are more firm and trusty than a Court-party, I cannot but think that  
A Real Popularity would be a better Expedient than a Church and Court-party joined together can be: for as to the Expedient of a Standing Army, 'tis certain, that besides its own inrrinsic insufficiency, Lewis the present French King, and James the last of England have rendered it odious. It stinks in the Nostrils of all freeborn Men, and can only be an Expedient to set up a Commonwealth. But 'tis plain that  
A professed regard to the Common-weal of the People of England steadily pursued did raise the English Monarchy under the Administration of Q. Elizabeth (of blessed memory) to as high a degree of Glory as it ever attained when it stood upon its natural Foundation. Nor is any Expedient so proper for your Majesty to use as this. For,  

1. Upon this Foundation the Glory of your Illustrious Ancestors was built. And,  
2. Hereby your Majesty was recommended to the just and rightful possession of the Crown which at present you adorn. Party-taking, Party-making, or Partiality of all sorts overthrew King Charles the First, shook the Throne of King Charles the Second, and overturned the Monarchy under the Administration of the late King James, which by your Majesty's Affection to the People of England was restored, and by the same means is still preserved, and may be advanced to as high a pitch of Glory as ever heretofore it had gained. For hereby, 

1. All the true Ends of Government will be fully answered.  
2. All Factions and Parties will be sunk and forgotten: there will be no Whig nor Tory, no Jacobite, no Church-party, Court-party, nor Country-party: for the Interest of Court and Country will be one and the same, which has not been known since the Death of Queen Elizabeth, and therefore will be wonderfully pleasing for its Novelty, as well as for its Profitableness.  
3. Virtue and Honesty (which have been much decayed of late years) will be encouraged and restored. For no Man can pretend to recommend himself to your Royal Favour, but by advancing the Design which your Majesty openly does encourage.  
4. Hereby your Majesty will gain such a Credit with your People, as by virtue thereof very much to increase the Wealth and Strength of the Nation in a short time. And your Majesty's Revenue must necessarily bear a suitable proportion to the Trade of your Subjects; so that he who commands the Trade of the World, will consequently command the Wealth of the World. And,  
5. Hereby you may be able to follow the two great Maxims of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, which were, 

1st. To be the Head of the Protestants all over the World. And,  
2dly. To keep the Balance of Europe equal and steady.       
And thus the Glory of the English Monarchy under your Majesty's gracious Administration will be the Terror of others, and the Delight of all English People, which is the sincere desire of   
Your Majesty's most faithful, dutiful, and humble Subject and Servant  
THE END.   

A Catalogue of Books written against a Standing Army, and sold by A. Balwin.  

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