FLAG 



2197 



FLAG 



It floats over Cypress and Malta. 



O'er Canada, the Indies, Hong Kong ; 

 And Britons, where'er their flag's flying, 



Claim the rights which to Britons belong. 



We hoist it to show our devotion 



To our King, to our country, and laws ; 



It's the outward and visible emblem 

 Of advancement and Liberty's cause. 



You may say it's an old bit of bunting, 

 You may call it an old colored rag; 



But Freedom has made it majestic, 

 And time has ennobled the flag. 



From the earliest times England, Scotland 

 and Ireland had separate national emblems. 

 England had the cross of Saint George; Scot- 

 land, the cross of Saint Andrew; and Ireland, 

 the cross of Saint Patrick. When the crowns 

 of England and Scotland were combined under 

 James I, he commanded that henceforth the 

 man-of-war's flag should be the "red cross 

 commonly called Saint George's cross, and the 

 white cross commonly called Saint Andrew's 

 cross, joined together according to a form 

 made by our heralds, and sent by us to our 

 admiral to be published to our said subjects." 

 This was in 1606 and was the first Union Jack; 

 strictly speaking, it should be called the Great 

 union or Union flag, and it is only a jack 

 when flying from the jackstaff of a man-of- 

 war. 



Various changes were made in this flag by 

 Cromwell, Charles II and Queen Anne. While 

 Scotland and England thus had a common 

 flag, each country continued to use its own 

 jack. An English vessel, for example, would 

 fly the Union Jack from the main-top and the 

 English jack from the fore-top; a Scotch ves- 

 sel would substitute the Scotch jack for the 

 English jack at the fore-top. It was not until 

 1707, in the reign of Queen Anne, that the 

 "two-cross flag," uniting the red cross of Saint 

 George and the blue cross of Saint Andrew, 

 was adopted as the national flag by Act of 

 Parliament. For nearly a hundred years the 

 "two-cross jack" was the emblem of Britain's 



awer. During this century the British Empire 

 encircled the globe; the two-cross jack was 

 slanted in India by Clive, Wolfe's victory on 

 Plains of Abraham placed it on the citadel 

 of Quebec, and it was the first British flag to 

 3y in Australia and South Africa. 



Ireland had long been ruled by the English 

 ting, but it was only in 1801 that the cross 

 Saint Patrick was united with the crosses 

 of Saint Andrew and Saint George to form 

 the Union Jack, which is still the national 

 flag of Great Britain and its colonies. It is 



the most important of all British flags. It 

 flies from all fortresses, garrison posts and 

 armories in the British Empire, and is the 

 proper flag to fly from public schools and 

 private homes. With the Irish harp on a 

 blue shield in the center it is the flag of the 

 lord-lieutenant of Ireland. The star and arms 

 of the order of India make it the flag of the 

 viceroy. The Governor-General of Canada uses 

 the Union Jack with the Dominion coat of 

 arms in the center, surrounded by a garland 

 of maple leaves surmounted by a crown. 



The Three Ensigns. An ensign is a flag 

 with an oblong Union Jack in the upper corner 

 next to the staff and a field of red, white or 

 blue. This corner, from the fact that the 

 symbol of union was placed on it, is now itself 

 called the union. The ensigns were originally 

 all naval flags. In the days of great battle- 

 fleets, such as that which met the Spanish 

 Armada, there were usually three admirals, 

 each with his special ensign. The admiral in 

 command of the whole fleet used a plain red 

 flag. The vice-admiral, who generally com- 

 manded the van, used a white flag, and the 

 rear-admiral used a blue one. Later the com- 

 bined crosses of Saint George, Saint Andrew 

 and Saint Patrick were added, and until 1864 

 the three ensigns were used only by the royal 

 navy. By a change in the regulations in that 

 year, the royal navy retained only the white 

 ensign, while the red ensign was assigned to 

 the mercantile marine and the blue ensign to 

 all government vessels except those of the 

 navy. 



The Royal Standard. The royal standard 

 is also a union flag, for it is the symbol of 

 the personal tie which unites all Britons 

 throughout the world under one king. It is 

 divided into four quarters, the first and fourth 

 representing England, the second Scotland, and 

 the third Ireland. The English arms in the 

 first and fourth quarters are three gold lions 

 on a red field; the Scotch arms are a single 

 lion, in a heavy frame, in red on a gold field; 

 the Irish quarter shows a golden, winged harp 

 on a blue field. 



The royal standard is the personal flag of 

 the sovereign, and it should be displayed only 

 "when the sovereign is actually present, or 

 when any member of the royal family is pres- 

 ent representing the sovereign." It should 

 never be used for street decorations, but it is 

 customary to fly it on the sovereign's birth- 

 day and on the days of his accession and cor- 

 onation. 



