Who is Iain Murray?

Iain Murray, ISM to his friends, comes from Sunderland in the industrial North-East of England. He attended Newcastle Royal Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he interacted with many of Britain's up-and-coming writers and politicos at The Oxford Union. He went off to work for the British government at the Department of Transport, at which point he resigned his Conservative Party membership in the spirit of political neutrality inherent in the civil service. He was involved with legislative plans for the CrossRail project in London and then played a part in the privatization of Railtrack (RIP). He also managed to get himself a part time MBA from the University of London during this period. After privatizing himself out of a job, he came to the USA to marry his old College sweetheart, Kristen. Since October 1998, until recently he analyzed scientific and statistical issues for a nonpartisan Washington DC-based nonprofit, where he was Director of Research, and in which capacity he believed his old hobby-horse of political neutrality was once again important. His work has appeared in The Washington Post, The American Enterprise, The American Outlook, The San Francisco Chronicle, The Spectator, The Chicago Tribune, and many other publications and web sites around the world.

Nothing on this site should be taken as anything other than my personal opinion. It certainly does not represent the views of my employers, whoever they may be.

Naseby

More info on Naseby: This was the decisive meeting between Parliament's New Model Army and the Royalist Army of Charles Stuart (Charles I). Cromwell's decisive intervention broke the back of the Royalist army and doomed its cause. After victories by Montrose in Scotland, Charles was arrested. The Battle showed that absolute monarchy could be defeated (and therefore made possible the Glorious Revolution) and established the first real modern Republic, in the Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the long war had made the Army stronger than Parliament, and the Commonwealth soon gave way to the Protectorate, the Constitution of which is surprisingly similar to the US Constitution, but which was in practice a military dictatorship. Nevertheless, Naseby strengthened the nonconformist tradition and secured the extensions of Magna Carta that had entered English jurisprudence in recent years and which Charles Stuart threatened. In some ways, the Protectorate it engendered also spurred England's and therefore America's distrust of standing armies.

Welcome to The Edge

The title comes from Macaulay's "The Battle of Naseby" and its final verse:

"And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills,
And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword;
And the Kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear
What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word."


Naseby was the pivotal moment in English history, in my opinion, and it made possible the Bill of Rights 1689, the American Founding and therefore the Free World. At this time in particular we should remember that fateful day so long ago.

Here's the full poem, just for interest:

The Battle of Naseby
by Obadiah Bind-their-kings-in-chains-and-their-nobles-with-links-of-iron,
Serjeant in Ireton's Regiment

OH! wherefore come ye forth, in triumph from the North,
With your hands, and your feet, and your raiment all red?
And wherefore doth your rout send forth a joyous shout?
And whence be the grapes of the wine-press which ye tread?

Oh, evil was the root, and bitter was the fruit,
And crimson was the juice of the vintage that we trod;
For we trampled on the throng of the haughty and the strong,
Who sate in the high places, and slew the saints of God.

It was about the noon of a glorious day of June,
That we saw their banners dance, and their cuirasses shine,
And the Man of Blood was there, with his long essenced hair,
And Astley, and Sir Marmaduke, and Rupert of the Rhine.

Like a servant of the Lord, with his Bible and his sword,
The General rode along us to form us to the fight,
When a murmuring sound broke out, and swell'd into a shout,
Among the godless horsemen upon the tyrant's right.

And hark! like the roar of the billows on the shore,
The cry of battle rises along their charging line!
For God! for the Cause! for the Church! for the Laws!
For Charles King of England and Rupert of the Rhine!

The furious German comes, with his clarions and his drums,
His bravoes of Alsatia, and pages of Whitehall;
They are bursting on our flanks. Grasp your pikes, close your ranks;
For Rupert never comes but to conquer or to fall.

They are here! They rush on! We are broken! We are gone!
Our left is borne before them like stubble on the blast.
O Lord, put forth thy might! O Lord, defend the right!
Stand back to back, in God's name, and fight it to the last.

Stout Skippon has a wound; the centre hath given ground:
Hark! hark!--What means the trampling of horsemen on our rear?
Whose banner do I see, boys? 'Tis he, thank God, 'tis he, boys,
Bear up another minute: brave Oliver is here.

Fast, fast, the gallants ride, in some safe nook to hide
Their coward heads, predestined to rot on Temple Bar;
And he--he turns, he flies:--shame on those cruel eyes
That bore to look on torture, and dare not look on war.

Ho! comrades scour the plain; and, ere ye strip the slain,
First give another stab to make your search secure,
Then shake from sleeves and pockets their broad-pieces and lockets,
The tokens of the wanton, the plunder of the poor.

Fools! your doublets shone with gold, and your hearts were gay and bold,
When you kissed your lily hands to your lemans to-day;
And to-morrow shall the fox, from her chambers in the rocks,
Lead forth her tawny cubs to howl above the prey.

Where be your tongues that late mocked at heaven and hell and fate,
And the fingers that once were so busy with your blades,
Your perfum'd satin clothes, your catches and your oaths,
Your stage-plays and your sonnets, your diamonds and your spades?

Down, down, for ever down with the mitre and the crown,
With the Belial of the Court and the Mammon of the Pope;
There is woe in Oxford halls: there is wail in Durham's Stalls:
The Jesuit smites his bosom: the Bishop rends his cope.

And She of the seven hills shall mourn her children's ills,
And tremble when she thinks on the edge of England's sword;
And the Kings of earth in fear shall shudder when they hear
What the hand of God hath wrought for the Houses and the Word.

Thomas Babbington Macaulay