may happen by other
means besides that of abdication; as if all the bloodroyal should
fail, without any successor appointed by parliament;) if, I say, a
vacancy by any means whatsoever should happen, the right of disposing
of this vacancy seems naturally to result to the lords and commons,
the trustees and representatives of the nation. For there are no other
hands in which it can so properly be intrusted; and there is a
necessity of it's being intrusted somewhere, else the whole frame of
government must be dissolved and perish. The lords and commons having
therefore determined this main fundamental article, that there was a
vacancy of the throne, they proceeded to fill up that vacancy in such
manner as they judged the most proper. And this was done by their
declaration of 12 February 1688[b], in the following manner: "that
William and Mary, prince and princess of Orange, be, and be declared
king and queen, to hold the crown and royal dignity during their
lives, and the life of the survivor of them; and that the sole and
full exercise of the regal power be only in, and executed by, the said
prince of Orange, in the names of the said prince and princess, during
their joint lives; and after their deceases the said crown and royal
dignity to be to the heirs of the body of the said princess; and for
default of such issue to the princess Anne of Denmark and the heirs of
her body; and for default of such issue to the heirs of the body of
the said prince of Orange."

[Footnote b: Com. Journ. 12 Feb. 1688.]

PERHAPS, upon the principles before established, the convention might
(if they pleased) have vested the regal dignity in a family intirely
new, and strangers to the royal blood: but they were too well
acquainted with the benefits of hereditary succession, and the
influence which it has by custom over the minds of the people, to
depart any farther from the antient line than temporary necessity and
self-preservation required. They therefore settled the crown, first on
king William and queen Mary, king James's eldest daughter, for their
_joint_ lives; then on the survivor of them; and then on the issue of
queen Mary: upon failure of such issue, it was limited to the princess
Anne, king James's second daughter, and her issue; and lastly, on
failure of that, to the issue of king William, who was the grandson of
Charles the first, and nephew as well as son in law of king James the
second, being the son of Mary his only sister.