Upon the eve of a prorogation for Easter, after the dispute about the rights of sitting and adjournment had been carried on with an obstinacy which it would be tiresome to describe, the Archbishop delivered to the members of Convocation a speech, in which he alluded to the existing dispute: “We have many enemies, and they wait for nothing more than to see the union and order of this Church, which is both its beauty and its strength, broken by those who ought to preserve it.” “For the maintaining the episcopal authority is so necessary to the preservation of the Church, that the rest of the Clergy are no less concerned in it than the Bishops themselves.” “I have thought fit, with the rest of my brethren, to prorogue the Convocation for some time. It is a season of devotion, and I pray God it may have a good effect on all our minds.” “We, on our part, are willing to forget all that is past, and to go on with you at our next meeting, as well as at all times, with all tenderness and parental affection, in all such things as shall conduce to the good of this Church.”[342] [Sidenote: CONVOCATION.] In spite of the prorogation until the 8th of May, the Prolocutor and some of the Clergy persevered in their assertion of independence, and sat for some hours the same day on which his Grace prorogued both Houses; then they adjourned to meet the next day. But this policy, being esteemed by some High Churchmen as a stretch of power quite unconstitutional, led to a secession, which considerably weakened the influence of the party.