The Commonwealth of England, in self-defence of their shipping, and as a direct blow against the Dutch, enacted the celebrated Navigation Act of 1651, directing that all goods imported into the Kingdom of Britain, or into her colonies, must be carried either in English ships or in those of the country whence the cargo was obtained.

The Dutch and English navies sailed the seas watching the movements of each other's flags, and minding the welfare of their merchant marine. Bickerings were frequent, but in May, 1652, off Dover, Tromp brought the right to salute to a crisis. The nations were then at peace, when the Dutch fleet bore down in strength upon the English without lowering their colours. As soon as Tromp was within musket-shot the English Admiral gave orders to fire at his flag. At the third shot Tromp answered by a broadside. In such way, through an episode regarding a flag, the first Dutch War began.[52] Although the Parliament had become alive to the value of a navy, yet the unpreparedness of the previous years now told its tale, for when the season of 1652 had closed, the Dutch had swept the English flag from the Narrow Seas, and Tromp is traditionally reported to have triumphantly carried a broom at his masthead as a sign of his complete success.

Tromp's glory was of but short duration, for the Roundhead dragoon, Blake, nicknamed "The cavalryman at sea," soon clipped his wings. In return for the compliment of the previous year, Blake, after his victory, ran up a pennant on his mast, long and narrow like a whiplash, to show that he had in his turn driven the Dutchman off the seas; and the whiplash masthead pennants, with the St. George cross in the white ground at the head (22), borne on all His Majesty's ships in commission, serve as reminders of the story of this exploit to the present day.[53]

Peace followed in 1654. In this treaty of peace the Dutch agreed that:

Thus had the old sea supremacy of the nation of England, claimed by King John, been again acknowledged; but on this occasion it was for the first time accorded to England by the terms of a formal treaty.

It was the red cross Jack of St. George, introduced by Richard I., and raised as his "Royal Flag" by King John, which had in previous times received the honour of the "Sovereign Lordship of the seas." We have seen how for a while its place had been shared by the additional two-crossed Jack of James: but now, by the incident of the temporary dissolution with Scotland under the Commonwealth, the English Jack was once more reigning in sole possession of the flag-staff, to receive by the terms of this treaty the renewal of that proud homage which its single red cross had received four centuries before. It was a happy coincidence which the flag of the seafaring Englishman most fully deserved.

Afterwards when the Jack of Queen Anne had taken its place in the Union Ensign, the same claim of supremacy was upheld. Under George III. the instructions issued to the British navy for salutes to be given and received stated:

This sovereignty so valiantly for so many centuries maintained was again gloriously achieved when Nelson at Trafalgar swept the combined forces of the French and Spanish navies from the seas, and made his nation the dominant power on the oceans—a dominance since maintained, not by conflict in attack, but by power and preparation for defence, in which the parent kingdom is now being joined by the daughter dominions in the outer Empire for maintaining inviolate the supremacy of the seas.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF THE SEAS.

THE FIGHT FOR THE TRADE.

Notwithstanding the check which they had received in their career, the marine power—both naval and merchant—of the Dutch kept on increasing. The hostilities against Spain, conducted under Cromwell, had transferred the Spanish carrying trade to the Dutch from the English ships, which had previously enjoyed it. The Dutch had also challenged the English merchantman in his own carrying trade, as well as becoming general carriers for all Europe; so much so that they were termed "The wagoners of all the seas."

It was the contest for the money value of the "command" of the seas which was really being waged, and the commerce of distant continents was the prize which would fall to the victor's share. Vessels of the Dutch and other nations were ordered to heave to, or were stopped by a shot across their bows, not only to compel observance of the supremacy of the flag, but also for opportunity to search their holds for the goods which the searchers might consider should have been carried in English ships.

The Dutch had agreed to acknowledge the English flag in the British seas, but the English claimed it should be saluted on all. In 1663, De Ruyter and Admiral Lawson had almost come to cannon shots in the Mediterranean over salutes claimed for the flag, and recriminations and searchings had extended to the waters of the far East Indies, where the Dutch, who had taken the Cape of Good Hope from the Portuguese, were competing with the English ships for the merchant trade.

Soon, under Charles II., another Dutch war (1665-67) blazed out, during which De Ruyter sailed up the Thames to Gravesend and destroyed the ships at Chatham and in the Medway, and London was for the first time startled by the sound of an enemy's guns. Again the success was but temporary, for at the close of the war New Amsterdam in America, and with it the command of the Hudson River, was ceded to the English. The name of the new territory then obtained was changed to New York, in honour of the Duke of York, the King's brother, which English and royal name it still retains, although now forming the principal maritime city of the Republic of the United States. With the booty came, in the articles of peace, the old-time ascription of sovereignty to the British flag. It was again agreed by one of the articles of the treaty:

But the rivalry was too intense to continue much longer without coming to a definite climax. The "command" foreseen by Raleigh was at stake. Both nations had the maritime instinct, and both the genius of colonizing power, so that one or the other of them must give place and leave to the survivor the supreme possession of all that this command implied.

Formal negotiations between the governments had been rife, but the vital test was the supremacy due to the flag. An English royal yacht was ordered to sail through the Dutch men-of-war in the channel and to fire on them if they did not strike their flags. An ultimatum was sent summoning Holland to acknowledge the right of the English crown to the sovereignty of the British seas and to order its fleets to lower their flags to the smallest English man-of-war.[56]

Thus the third and final war came on in 1672 and continued until 1674.

The plain red fighting flag of the English navy of the day was flying at the fore on the men-of-war as the signal to "engage the enemy," and the ensign red was at the stern of both men-of-war and merchantmen as the national ensign. War immediately commenced, and while the Royal Navy was battling with its guns, the merchant navy of England was cutting into the carrying trade of the Dutch, so much so that at its close the British merchant ships had captured the greater part of the foreign business of the enemy, and by thus exhausting their earnings, and reducing the fighting resources of the Dutch, contributed to the final victory almost equally with the exploits of the men-of-war.

The contest, though short, was very sharp. The strife had been for the merchant carrying trade of the world, and when it was won, whole colonies were transferred with it to the victorious English.

During the interval which had followed since the previous war the English had returned to the Dutch their newly-acquired possession of New York in exchange for the Dutch possessions in Guiana, the boundaries of whose territories then transferred formed the subject of the Venezuela excitement of 1896; but now they took both these countries back, while the Island of St. Helena, which, in the beginning of the war had been captured by the Dutch by an expedition sent from their colony at the Cape of Good Hope, was again recovered to the British flag. These possessions formed only a portion of the victor's spoil. Above all of these and other great money results, the old sea spirit again asserted itself, and setting into inferior position the additions to the realm, or the compensations exacted for the expenses of the war, the final treaty declares among its first clauses the lordly renewal of the centuries-old right of the respect and salute due to the nation's flag:

The "Jack" of His Majesty Charles II., which was the sign of His Majesty's ships, was the two-crossed "additional" Jack of his father, which had been restored to the navy at the Restoration, and as shown on the Naseby (20).

This Jack was flying at the bow and on the mizzen of the ships of war, and at the stern was the sign of nationality, the "ensign red" with the St. George cross.

The ensign red which the ships of that royal navy bore when they thus won the final supremacy of the sea from the navy of Holland, was the flag worn also by the British merchantmen of the time, and on them witnessed the obtaining of that other command, then won from the Dutch, "the command of the trade, which is the command of the riches of the world." To this victory the merchant mariner, by his seamanship and energy, had done his full share, and had won his right to wear it as his own. Worthily, therefore, at this present day do the merchant ships of Britain wear the red ensign on every sea, in every clime, in rightful acknowledgment of the part their predecessors played in the gaining of the supremacy of the sea.

This supremacy, and still more the spirit of sea supremacy, has ever remained dominant in the souls of British seamen.

When in March, 1889, the harbour of Apia, in Samoa, was devastated by a terrific cyclone, and all the ships of other nations dragged their anchors and were driven ashore, it was with this native spirit that the British sailors slipped their cables and set out for their ocean home on the open sea. As the British man-of-war breasted the hurricane and battled through the breakers at the harbour mouth, the American sailors on their flagship Rodney, sinking with fires extinguished[58] inside the bar, cheered her as she passed, a cheer which rang round the world, and the bold Calliope, with her British ensign above her, and her "hearts of oak" within, won her way to safety far out in the wildest storm.

With such widespread venture in her people, such spirit in her ships and record in her flag, no wonder is it that the British Navy and the British merchant marine exceed in number and in power those of any other nation on the globe. Well, therefore, with lusty throats and cheerful hearts, Britannia's children sing:

CHAPTER XII.

THE UNION JACK OF QUEEN ANNE, 1707.

THE SECOND UNION JACK.

The story of the flag now brings us to the creation of the second two-crossed Jack, being the first real "Union Jack" (23).

In the year 1707, being the sixth year of the reign of Queen Anne, the Parliaments of England and Scotland were at length brought into Union in one Parliament. Up to this time there had not been one distinctive "Union Jack" to represent both the kingdoms—no one flag taking the place of the separate national Jacks of St. George and St. Andrew, which the English and Scotch subjects of the Sovereign had each been instructed and continued to use, according to their nationality.

In Acts of Parliament which had been passed in the Parliaments of England and Scotland, prior to their ceasing to act and becoming merged in the one "Union Parliament of Great Britain," authority had been given to the Queen to create a flag, in which the two national flags, the "Crosse of St. George" and the "Crosse of St. Andrew," should be joined together to form a Union Flag.

PLATE V

The Queen accordingly called her councillors together, and a Committee of the Lords of the Privy Council was appointed "to consider of several matters in Execution of the Act lately pass'd for the uniting of the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland."

Instructions were given by this Committee to the Right Honourable the Earl of Bindon, Deputy Earl Marshal of England,

These directions were carried out and various designs prepared by the Heralds and the Committee were thereafter presented for final adjudication and authority at a meeting of the Privy Council, as recorded in the Minutes:

Copies of the minute and of the drafts were transmitted under seal to the College of Arms, London. A careful copy of the drawing of Draft C, as attested by a certificate of the York Herald, is given (fig. 24).

Formal and important promulgation of the Orders and Flags was ordered by another paragraph of this same minute of April:

This Draft C, so prepared by the Committee and Heralds, and selected and approved by Her Majesty the Queen and Her Privy Council, was duly transmitted to be the form of the new "Flagg," which was to be used on all "Flags and Ensigns at sea and on land," and not only by Her Majesty's subjects in the Home Kingdoms, but in all the Islands and Dominions beyond the seas.

Thus was formed the "Union Jack" of Queen Anne, which, taking the place of the Jack of James I., "commonly called the Union Jack," was the second two-crossed Jack, and the first fully authorized "Union Jack."

In the July following, the Queen issued a proclamation regarding "Our Jack" and the "Ensign" of the now completely United Kingdom, and defining more particularly how these flags were to be used at sea:

After creating the Ensign, which was to be used by all ships, warning was given, so that Her Majesty's ships might be the more easily distinguished, against the using of the single Jack, or of any of the distinctive flags of the Royal Navy, without permission.

The proclamation then stated that no other ensign was to be used, and that it was to take the place of the ensign red up to that time used by merchant ships:

Here, then, we have the establishment of a new flag in accordance with the intention of the Treaty of Union. In this flag the "crosses" of St. George and St. Andrew were conjoined; the new flag was called "Our Jack" (Pl. V., fig. 1), which in its simple form, as a single Jack, was not to be used afloat on any other ships than Her Majesty's Royal Navy without particular warrant. A notable change was now made in the Ensign. We have seen how, in 1660, the English St. George cross had remained alone in possession of the upper corner of the "ensign red." Although the St. George cross continued, as it still does, in the "command pennant" of all officers of the Royal Navy, its place in the Ensign was now taken by the new "Union Jack," in the form as shown "in the margent" (25).

The "Red Ensign," thus formed, was authorized to be worn thereafter on all ships, both merchantmen and those in Her Majesty's service; and, further, that no other Ensign was to be worn except this "Red Ensign," with the new Union Jack in the upper corner, which was to take the place of the separate national Jacks and of the "Ensign Red" previously used on the merchant ships of the subjects of the Sovereign.

Here, then, ceased the official authority on ships as national flags of the separate crosse-flags of St. George and St. Andrew, and began the reign of the first "Union Jack" of the United Kingdoms. Then, too, was first raised the British Union Ensign, the "meteor flag" of the realm, to be worn by all subjects of Britain's Queen, whether on land or on sea, at home or abroad, on merchant ships or on men-of-war, so that wherever the blood-red flag should fly the world would know the nation to which its bearers belonged. In this red ensign (Pl. V., fig. 2), the paramount flag of the nation, the new "Union Jack" was placed; a position which, although so long enjoyed by the "English Jack," had never been occupied by the "additional" Jack of James I., whose term was now brought to a close.

The proclamation and drawing of the ensign, as shown (25), are taken by photo reproduction from the upper corner of an original in the British Museum, London, and verified with the copy of the flag in the College of Arms.

A very noticeable difference will be seen to exist between "our" new Jack of Queen Anne, of 1707, and the "additional" Jack of James, of 1606, as usually given.

The white border surrounding the St. George cross has been enlarged, and is no longer a mere margin or "fimbriation," but has become a broad white border, distinctive in size and appearance.

In the King James I. flag the crosses were "joyned according to the forme made by our heralds";[62] in the Queen Anne flag they are to be "conjoyned in such manners as we should think fit",[63] in accordance with the request of the Parliaments of the two kingdoms. This time the designers of the "drafts," to whom the two then "present flags of England and of Scotland"[64] had been committed, were not thinking so much of heraldry as of making, as they were instructed, a union flag, and, while combining the two crosses, of making the two flags into one.

We have seen with what carefulness the combined Committee of the Privy Council and of the Heralds had proceeded, and when the new flagmakers thus broadened the white, they did it, it has been considered, for the purpose of representing in the Union flag a part of the white ground of the St. George Jack, which had previously been entirely effaced, but which by the broad white border was now given its place in the new "Union," as well as, and in company with, that of the blue ground of the St. Andrew flag.

A confirmation of this intention will be found in the annals of the next change in the Union Jack, which was made almost a century later. It is possible, too, that the views of the designers were affected by the relative proportions of some of the King James Jacks, which were in official use and will be referred to later.

It may have been that some of the Queen's advisers and designers were sailors, who had carried the red cross of St. George, and now that it was being withdrawn from the Ensign of the nation in favour of the newcomer, felt, like the admiral of old, that it was but due to its centuries of glorious service that evidence of the whole English Jack—its white ground as well as its red cross—should be displayed in the new national emblem.

There the broad white band appeared in this two-crossed Jack, and has ever since remained, showing the red cross and white ground of St. George's Jack, combined, with the white cross and blue ground of St. Andrew's Jack, into one "Union Jack," which was hereafter to be the "sole ensign" of British rule.

It was this two-crossed Union Jack of Queen Anne which was raised at Plassey, when Clive won India, and at Pondicherry and at Seringapatam. Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were early (1713) transferred to it from the fleur-de-lis, and Sir William Johnson raised it in Canada above the old Fort Niagara, on the shores of Lake Ontario[65] (26), when

Under it Wolfe stormed Louisbourg, the key fortress of Cape Breton, and, following up his victory, climbed the Heights, and died victorious on the Plains of Abraham (27), when, in 1759, Quebec was gained and all Canada came under the realm of British law.

The youthful Nelson saw it fly aloft when he served as captain's coxswain on a British man-of-war searching for the North Pole, and twenty-five years later when in glorious action he won his title as Baron Nelson of the Nile.

The Cape Colony was first acquired, and the West Coast of Africa, New South Wales and Vancouver Island were all added under its display, showing how the mariners of Britain were carrying it far across the distant seas, more distant then than now, for those sea-dogs of the "sceptred isles," boldly raising their new Union Jack upon the mast, braved the unknown oceans, and sailed their ships wherever billows rolled or winds could waft them.

So it came that, as its "glory roll" so vividly tells, it was under this second Union Jack the colonial possessions which dot the world around were either occupied by doughty Britons or were wrested from the flags of other nations to form the foundation of that Greater Britain which, from these beginnings, has since grown up in all the regions beyond the seas.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE TWO-CROSSED JACK IN CANADA.

Although the Union Jack has been built up on the local Jacks of the three island kingdoms, its greatest glories have been won in expeditions sent far across the seas to other lands. The people of the parent isles have never needed to raise it as their signal in driving invaders from their own shores, and in this way it does not bear that added vitality to them which it bears to the resident Canadian, that of being associated with brave defence of home and native land. To the Englishman, Irishman or Scotsman, in his own island home, it is an emblem of foreign conquest; to the immigrant and to the Canadian-born it is much more, as being the patriot signal of his national defence.

After the events of 1759 and of 1760, when Levis at St. Foy nearly won back Quebec, and the cession of the rule of France in Canada had been agreed upon, Canada had settled down into the paths of peace; soldier and habitant vied in binding up one another's wounds, and evidencing all the pleasantries of reconciliation.[67]

A memorial, the like of which has never been known elsewhere, either in history or the world, has been erected in the square of "The Governor's Garden," at Quebec, to the two heroes, Montcalm and Wolfe, equal in valour, equal in fame. A united sentiment raised this single monument to their united memory, bearing upon it the noble inscription:

As the glory of their champions was thus intertwined, so the patriotism of the old French occupants and of the newcomers to Canada began from this splendid example to blend more closely in fraternal union.

The Treaty of Paris, in 1763, confirmed the Union Jack in its position of being the successor to the fleur-de-lis of France and the three castles of Castile of Spain over all the territory on the continent of America, stretching from Labrador along the Atlantic coast southward to Florida, and inland westward as far as the waters of the Mississippi from their highest sources to its mouth on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.[68]

In pursuance of this treaty, King George III. issued his proclamation (October, 1763) creating four provinces and governments, named Quebec, East Florida, West Florida, and Granada, this last consisting of the islands of the West Indies. Of these four the Province of Quebec comprised the territory lying adjacent to the St. Lawrence River system, along its whole length to the head waters on the watersheds of the farthest inland lakes.

By this proclamation French Canada ceased to be a conquered country, and became a fully established colony of the British King. It was to be governed by a governor and an assembly, entitled to arrange its own taxation, have control of its own internal welfare and local government, and empowered to institute its own courts of law; but to every subject, new or old, of the King, there was reserved the right of appeal to the foot of the throne itself in the Privy Council of Great Britain, should any person think himself aggrieved by the decision of his own locally appointed courts.[69]

The French Canadian subject soon began to find for himself the beneficent character of British rule. He was no longer harried by an irresponsible governor nor a grasping "intendant" for the enrichment of a far-distant court, but was assisted in every way in the local development of his country. His personal property was assured, and he soon became sensible of the certainty of English law.

An Act of Parliament followed, formally and still further guaranteeing to the French-speaking subjects the quiet continuance of their most cherished customs.[70]

The Quebec Act of 1774 confirmed the habitant in the free exercise of his Roman Catholic religion, and restored to him his old French civil law (Code Civile), but provided that in all criminal matters the law of England, which had been found so satisfactory, was to remain in force.

Content with his lot, secure in his home, and sure that good faith would ever be kept with him and his descendants, the French Canadian proved loyal to the trust which was now confided to him.

After having been for sixteen years an English colony, Canada was invaded in 1775 by the forces of the thirteen older English colonies to the south, which, after a series of altercations and misunderstandings, due largely to their refusal in the past days to contribute toward the expense of the military forces which had been maintained on their frontiers "at England's cost to defend her American children against the French and their Indian allies",[71] had consorted together in revolution against their parent State. After entering Montreal, which had been abandoned to them, the Revolutionary forces concentrated around the walls of Quebec for an assault upon the citadel. Below were the rebels against the British crown; above, upon the King's bastion on Cape Diamond, flew the two-crossed Union Jack, and within the fortress, under Sir Guy Carleton, the friend and fellow-soldier of Wolfe, was a garrison of 1,800 men, one-third of whom were French Canadian militia, headed by Colonel Lecompte Dupré. The invaders from New York were, however, reckoning without their host. They had expected to find the French Canadians dissatisfied with their lot; but, instead, they found them standing side by side with their British friends, and joining with them in common defence of their native Canadian land.

The assault commenced on the night of December 31st, 1775. At the point of attack at Près-de-Ville, in lower town, the guard was under the command of Captain Chabot and Lieutenant Picard, of the French Canadian militia, and the guns were served by sailors from the British ships, with Sergeant Hugh McQuarters, of the Royal Artillery, in charge. The attack was boldly met. General Montgomery, the leader of the United States forces, was killed; General Arnold, his second in command, wounded, and the whole invading force was put to rout.

Thus were the historic heights and ramparts of old Quebec again crowned with a British victory, but this time with one in which the French Canadians were themselves the brave defenders of the Union Jack.

No wonder the French-speaking Canadian looks upon his British flag with pride, and, as one of his compatriots, Sir Adolphe Chapleau, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec in 1897, has so well said, "is French in nationality, but British in patriotism"—for beneath the Union Jack he dwells secure in possession of his dearest rights, and under it has victoriously driven the United States invaders back each time they have ventured to attack his loved Canadian soil.

While such loyalty to the national flag was shown in Eastern Canada, so was it also displayed later on in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and in the country of Canada yet farther to the West.

The thirteen southern colonies had completed their revolution in 1783. Immediately thereafter the "coming of the Loyalists" had commenced to the districts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but was principally directed to the Western Province of Upper Canada, all three of these Provinces being now in the Dominion, or Union, of Canada.

These western lands were then uninhabited save by the native Indian tribes and a few white settlers who had been attracted to the districts by the chances of trapping for furs or of trading with the Indians.

The gallantry of the French-speaking Britons at Quebec, in 1775, had kept the Union Jack flying above Canadian soil, and to Canada's unbroken forests the English-speaking Loyalists therefore came, leaving the old colonies because they would have their loved flag once more float above them.

Never does history relate such devoted loyalty to a flag as was shown by this migration of the U. E. Loyalists[72]—men giving up homes, farms, companionship and wealth, and with their wives and little ones following a flag for conscience' sake into an undeveloped and almost unknown land.

It was enough for them that the Union Jack was the flag of Canada; so they followed it to the far north. Here they lived out the balance of their days, and, dying, have been buried in the sacred soil beneath its folds. Certain it is that their descendants will ever prove true to their loyal faith, that no other realm shall possess their bones nor other nation's flag fly above their graves.

Such, then, was the esteem in which Canadians of both races held the two-crossed Union Jack. Before the century of 1800 had commenced, the French-speaking Loyalist of Quebec had laid down his life in its defence; and having, by this loyalty, preserved it to the country, the English-speaking Loyalist here sought a new home in the far-off forests of Canada, so that he and his loved ones might continue to live again beneath its sway.

Truly was this two-crossed Union Jack the flag of Canada and the Canadians, and as truly is its three-crossed successor, our present Union Jack, the native birthright of the sons of its defenders and the successors of those patriot pioneers.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE IRISH JACK.

The lineage of the Irish Jack is not so clearly defined as is that of the other Jacks. Although "Paddy" has always been so ready for a shindy that fighting has come to be considered his "natural diversion," he has never found himself particularly at home on the sea. It is on land that he has found play for his fierce delight in mingling where the fray is thickest. It is as a soldier that the Irishman has always excelled. Wellington, Wolseley and Roberts attest his power in command, and in many a forlorn hope the wild energy of the Irish blood in the ranks has scaled the breach and carried the stormers past the anxious moments of the onset, displaying that same "eager, fierce, impetuous valour" with which, in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, the "Inniskillings went into the massive Russian column with a cheer."[74]

It may be that as Ireland was at no time distinguished as a maritime nation, and its local shipping not developed to any great extent, the display of her national Jack had not been so much in evidence among the sailors of the early days as were the Jacks of the two sister nations.

The banner of St. Patrick (28), which is the "Irish Jack," is a white flag, having on it a red cross of the same saltire or diagonal shape as St. Andrew's cross, the heraldic description being, "Argent, a saltire gules," red saltire cross on a white ground (Pl. I., fig. 3).