It was evidently desirable that this great contract between the governors and the governed, this titledeed by which the King held his throne and the people their liberties, should be put into a strictly regular form.

The Declaration of Rights was therefore turned into a Bill of Rights; and the Bill of Rights speedily passed the Commons; but in the Lords difficulties arose.
The Declaration had settled the crown, first on William and Mary jointly, then on the survivor of the two, then on Mary's posterity, then on Anne and her posterity, and, lastly, on the posterity of William by any other wife than Mary.

The Bill had been drawn in exact conformity with the Declaration.

Who was to succeed if Mary, Anne, and William should all die without posterity, was left in uncertainty.

Yet the event for which no provision was made was far from improbable.