five stripes, three yellow and two red, yellow 

 at the top and bottom. The central stripe is 

 wider than the others. The flag bears no de- 

 vice, but the colors are those of Aragon and 

 Castile. 



820. The flag of Switzerland consists of a 

 red field with a white cross. When the Red 

 Cross was recognized at the International Con- 

 ference at Geneva, in 1863, a distinguishing 

 badge was devised for times of war and peace. 

 It will be noticed that the colors adopted are 

 those of Switzerland counterchanged, the red 

 cross being in a white ground. 



821. The Captain General of the fleet of 

 Spain flies the familiar red and yellow colors 

 with an anchor placed horizontally on the yel- 

 low bar. 



822. Spanish ambassadors fly a swallow-tail 

 flag made up of white, red, and yellow. The 

 third of the flag next to the staff is white and 

 red, white at the top and red below. The mid- 

 dle bar of the flag is yellow and upon it two 

 crossed tasseled pencils are imposed. The third 

 of the flag at the fly end is red. 



823. The flag of a Spanish minister is like 

 that of an ambassador, except that instead of 

 the pencils there are three blue disks on the 

 yellow bar. 



824. The military and naval service of 

 Tunis has a flag consisting of a red field, upon 

 which is centered a white disk having a diam- 

 eter half the vertical width of the flag. Upon this 

 disk a red crescent and a red star are imposed. 

 The flag is inherited from Turkey, although 

 it is no longer under Turkish domination. 



825. The royal standard of Sweden consists 

 of a blue flag bearing a yellow cross. This 

 flag is swallowtailed and the horizontal arm of 

 the cross in the fly projects. Upon the inter- 

 section of the cross is placed the coat-of-arms 

 of the country. 



826. The ensign of Sweden is like the royal 

 standard, with the exception that the' coat-of- 

 arms is omitted. 



827. The merchant flag of Sweden is a rec- 

 tangular blue flag, bearing the yellow cross. 

 The blue and yellow were regarded as colors 

 of freedom and independence at the time they 

 were incorporated in the Swedish flag. 



828. The standard of the Bey of Tunis is a 

 fearfully and wonderfully made flag. It con- 

 sists of seven horizontal stripes — red, yellow, 

 red, green, red, yellow, red — the green stripe 

 being double the width of the others. The 

 stripes do not extend the full length of the 

 flag, but join a narrow green stripe next to 

 and parallel with the staff. Every red stripe 

 has four yellow-centered green disks and four 

 yellow stars arranged alternately. On every 

 yellow stripe are four red stars and four black 

 disks with red centers arranged in the same 

 way. On the broad central green stripe is a 

 double-pointed dagger with white blade and 

 red handle, gold and red stars being distributed 

 about it. This flag is a western variation of 

 the old flag of the days of Moslem authority. 

 In those days there were thirteen stripes in- 

 stead of seven. Tunis is now under French 

 dominion and the tricolor is the supreme ban- 

 ner of the land. 



THE FLAGS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE 



829. The national flag of the British Empire, 

 the union jack, combines the crosses of St. 

 George (830). St. Andrew (S31), and St. Pat- 

 rick (832). When the union of the two crowns 

 of England and Scotland took place upon the 

 accession of James VI of Scotland to the Eng- 

 lish throne as James I, the cross of St. An- 

 drew, the patron saint of Scotland, and that of 

 St. George, the patron saint of England, were 

 combined, and all ships were ordered to fly at 

 their maintop the new flag, while at the fore- 

 top the English were still to fly the red cross 

 of St. George and the Scots the white cross of 

 St. Andrew. 



This was the first union jack (361), as it is 

 generally termed, though, strictly speaking, the 

 name of the flag is '"great union," being a jack 

 only when flown from the jackstaff of a ship 

 of war. James I always signed his name 

 '"Jacques," and it is believed in many quarters 

 that the jack and the jackstaff of the navy de- 

 rived their names from that fact. Others con- 

 tend that "jack" was used as early as the close 

 of the sixteenth century. Lord Howard's ships 

 in their attack upon the Spanish Armada, in 

 [588, are described as carrying a "jack" on the 

 jackstaff. their jack being a small edition of 

 the red cross of St. George. 



That St. George's cross was placed over St. 

 Andrew's was distressing to the Scot?, who 



made it the subject of an appeal to the King 

 (see 1132). But even a king cannot solve all of 

 the problems of heraldry. That art has no way 

 of making two devices on a flag of equal value. 

 If they be put side by side the position next 

 the staff is more honorable than the one re- 

 mote_ from it, just as the upper portion of a 

 flag is more honorable than the lower. After 

 the death of Charles I, the union of Scotland 

 and England was dissolved and the ships of 

 parliament reverted to the use of the simple 

 cross of St. George, while those of Scotland 

 took up the cross of St. Andrew again. When 

 Cromwell became protector he restored the 

 union flag, imposing the Irish harp upon its 

 center. 



After the • Restoration, Charles II removed 

 the harp, and so the original union flag was 

 revived and continued in that form until 1801, 

 when, upon the legislative union of Great Brit- 

 ain and Ireland, the cross of St. Patrick was 

 incorporated. To combine these crosses with- 

 out losing the characteristic features of each 

 was not easy. Each had to be distinct and at 

 the same time retain a border which would 

 denote its original ground. To place the red 

 cross of St. Patrick on the white cross of St. 

 Andrew would have obliterated the latter, and 

 vice versa. Therefore it was decided to make 

 the white broader on one side of the red than 



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