104 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
sidering the memorable part the town was to take a few years after 
— the Royal side, and Eobert Trelawny was one of the representa- 
tives. Perhaps to secure the continuance of his support, four days 
after the assembling, namely on the 21st April, the king by his 
Letters Patent granted the prayer of the petition of 1634, for the 
division of the parishes, and immediately followed the Act. 
Between May and November the difficulties only increased, and 
on the 5th of the latter month assembled the memorable body known 
as the Long Parliament, which, as Macaulay says, in spite of many 
errors and disasters, is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude 
of all who in any part of the world enjoy the blessings of consti- 
tutional government. To aid in the deliberations of this body 
Plymouth again sent Robert Trelawny to Westminster as her 
representative, while on the other side Pym and Strode, two of the 
five members impeached, sat, one for Tavistock and the other for 
Plympton. 
It is not often in our days that a man has the chance of dying 
for his opinions ; few perhaps covet the honour ; but during the 
Long Parliament there were many such opportunities, and un- 
flinchingly those patriots, whichever side they stood, firmly believ- 
ing they were right, laid down their lives for their country's cause. 
Robert Trelawny was one of them. His parliamentary career was 
brief, but not inglorious. As a Royalist he was returned, and as 
a Royalist the western squire suffered. Clarendon, in his History 
of the Rebellion, alluding to the fierce conflict between the rival 
parties, informs us that unscrupulous means were adopted by both 
sides, but especially by the Roundheads. This from so strong a 
partizan was to have been expected, but he shall tell his story in 
his own words : 
"In oppressing all those who were of different opinions from 
them, their carriage was so notorious and terrible that spies were 
set upon, and enquiries made upon all private, light, casual 
discourses which fell from those who were not gracious to them : 
as Mr. Trelawny, a member of the House of Commons, and a 
merchant of great reputation, was expelled the House, and com- 
mitted to prison, for having said, in private discourse in the City, 
to a friend, ' that the House could not appoint a guard for them- 
selves without the king's consent, under pain of high treason,' 
which was proved by a fellow, who pretended to overhear him ; 
when the person himself with whom the conference was held 
