Lord Cowper later claimed the act was designed "to put it [the succession] in such a method as was not to be resisted but by open force of arms and a public declaration for the Pretender".

[1] The act required privy counsellors and other officers, in the event of Anne's death, to proclaim as her successor the next Protestant in the line of succession to the throne, and made it high treason to fail to do so.

If the next Protestant successor was abroad at the death of Anne, seven great Officers of State named in the act (and others whom the heir-apparent thought fit to appoint), called "Lords Justices," would form a regency.

[2] The Lords Justices were to have the power to give royal assent to bills, except that they would be guilty of treason if they amended the Act of Uniformity 1662 (14 Cha.

3. c. 15) which stipulated that Parliament would continue to sit should the sovereign die "for and during the term of six months and no longer, unless the same be sooner prorogued or dissolved by such person to whom the Crown of this realm of Great Britain shall come".