The next object that engrossed the attention of the commons, was the settlement of the succession to the throne, which the king had recommended to their consideration in the beginning of the session.

Having deliberated on this subject, they resolved, That for the preservation of the peace and happiness of the kingdom, and the security of the protestant religion, it was absolutely necessary that a further declaration should be made of the limitation and succession of the crown in the protestant line, after his majesty and the princess, and the heirs of their bodies respectively; and that further provision should be first made for the security of the rights and liberties of the people.
Mr.Harley moved, That some conditions of government might be settled as preliminaries, before they should proceed to the nomination of the person, that their security might be complete.

Accordingly, they deliberated on this subject, and agreed to the following resolutions; That whoever shall hereafter come to the possession of this crown, shall join in communion with the church of England as by law established; that in case the crown and imperial dignity of this realm shall hereafter come to any person, not being a native of this kingdom of England, this nation be not obliged to engage in any war for the defence of any dominions or territories which do not belong to the crown of England, without the consent of parliament; that no person who shall hereafter come to the possession of the crown, shall go out of the dominions of England, Scotland, or Ireland, without consent of parliament; that, from and after the time that the further limitation by this act shall take effect, all matters and things relating to the well-governing of this kingdom, which are properly cognizable in the privy-council, by the laws and customs of the realm, shall be transacted there, and all resolutions taken thereupon shall be signed by such of the privy-council as shall advise and consent to the same; that, after the limitation shall take effect, no person born out of the kingdom of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging, although he be naturalized, and made a denizen (except such as are born of English parents), shall be capable to be of the privy-council, or a member of either house of parliament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil or military, or to have any grant of lands, tenements, or hereditaments from the crown to himself, or to any others in trust for him; that no person who has an office or place of profit under the king, or receives a pension from the crown, shall be capable of serving as a member of the house of commons; that, after the limitation shall take effect, judges' commissions be made _quamdiu se bene gesserint_, and their salaries ascertained and established; but upon the address of both houses of parliament, it may be lawful to remove them; but no pardon under the great seal of England be pleadable to an impeachment by the commons in parliament.

Having settled these preliminaries, they resolved, that the princess Sophia, duchess dowager of Hanover, be declared the next in succession to the crown of England, in the protestant line, after his majesty, and the princess, and the heirs of their bodies respectively; and, that the further limitation of the crown be to the said princess Sophia and the heirs of her body, being protestants.

A bill being formed on these resolutions, was sent up to the house of lords, where it met with some opposition from the marquis of Normanby; a protest was likewise entered against it by the earls of Huntingdon and Plymouth, and the lords Guilford and Jeffries.
Nevertheless it passed without amendments, and on the twelfth day of June received the royal assent: the king was extremely mortified at the preliminary limitations, which he considered as an open insult on his own conduct and administration; not but that they were necessary precautions, naturally suggested by the experience of those evils to which the nation had been already exposed, in consequence of raising a foreign prince to the throne of England.