St. Patrick was the Christian apostle of the Irish, and thus became their traditional patron saint. The story of his life is that he was born in Scotland, at Kilpatrick, near Dunbarton on the Clyde, and being taken prisoner by pirates when a child, was carried into Ireland and sold there as a serf. Having acquired the native language, he escaped to the continent, and afterwards becoming a Christian and having been ordained to service in the Church, returned to Ireland for the purpose of converting the people. The British name said to have been given him in his youth was Succeath (valiant in war), a temperament which he certainly impressed upon the Irish. This name was afterwards, when he returned to Ireland, changed to Patricius, in evidence of his noble family descent, and to add importance to his mission.[75]

The legends of the saint date back to A.D. 411, when he is reported to have commenced his mission, and to have afterwards devoted his life to the increase of the well-being of the people and the spread of Christianity throughout Ireland. Tradition reports, although some do not put much faith in it, that the saint suffered martyrdom upon a cross of the shape of this red cross, and thus, when he became the patron saint of Ireland, it was held in recognition as his emblem, and for that reason was adopted as the Irish cross.

On the other hand, some people declare that the cross of the saltire shape is sacred only to St. Andrew.

Another suggestion is that the shape of the saltire cross, both of the Irish and the Scotch, is derived from the Labarum (29), or Sacred Standard, which was raised by Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome, as the imperial standard of his armies. On this he had placed a monogram composed of the first two letters, ΧΡ (ChR), of the Greek form of the sacred name of Christ (ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ), and the saltire cross is reputed to be the repetition of the Χ of the lower part of the Christian emblem.

The Labarum was the official standard of the Emperor of Rome, and upon it were displayed the "insignia" of the emperor of the day. Constantine, after his conversion to Christianity, had changed his previous insignia to the Christian emblem.

Should this latter suggestion of the origin of the cross of the saltire shape be accepted as the preferable one, this saltire cross has yet a most interesting and particular connection with the early history of Ireland.

The Roman Governor of Britain, under the Emperor Diocletian, when, in A.D. 301, the pacification of IBERNIA (Ireland) had been completed, was Constantius Chlorus, the father of Constantine.

The goddess of the pagan islanders was the Goddess Hibernia, whose emblem was a harp, and this Hibernian Irish harp (30) Constantius had in testimony of his success adopted as the insignia for his standard.

After the resignation of Diocletian, Constantius Chlorus and Galerius were created joint emperors of Rome, and, dividing the empire between them, Galerius took the East and Constantius the West.

The death of Constantius occurred soon afterwards in England, at the city of York (Eboracum), and there he was succeeded as Emperor of Rome by his son Constantine.

Constantius had in some degree restrained the persecution of the Christians in Britain, which had raged under Diocletian, but it was now completely suppressed by the new emperor. Carrying with him his faith in Christianity, which he had learned in Britain, Constantine removed to the continent to engage in the contest for the command of the empire to which he had fallen heir, and in the battle of the Milvian Bridge, near Rome, in A.D. 312, he defeated the opposing eastern forces under Maxentius, and entered into undisputed possession of his position as sole emperor. It was just before this engagement that Constantine is reported to have seen a cross shining in the heavens at midday, having on it the inscription, ΕΝ ΤΟΥΤΩ ΝΙΚΑ ("In this conquer"—"In hoc signo vinces"), and, therefore, recognizing the Christian emblem, he adopted the Christian cross as his standard and placed the sacred monogram upon his Labarum. This victory resulted in the official recognition of the Christian religion, and the attaching to it of all the political power of the Emperor of Rome.

Constantius had lived, and Constantine the Great had been born and brought up, in the north of England, which, during the Roman occupation, had been converted to Christianity by missionaries from Scotland, whence St. Patrick afterwards also went to Ireland; and as it was to Constantine that the Christians owed their rescue from persecution, his insignia would, therefore, be heartily received. The early Christians, through this source, may have adopted the X cross, the lower part of Constantino's Christian monogram, as their emblem, and thus it had become associated in Ireland with the Christian labours of St. Patrick, their apostle and patron saint. In this "story of the Irish Jack," it is a notable transition that the harp emblem of Hibernia, carried by Constantius, and transmitted by him to his son, and by Constantine changed to the Christian Labarum, should in this diagonal cross of St. Patrick have been returned to become the emblem of Ireland.

Whichever may have been the source of its origin, the saltire cross, in its form of the red cross of St. Patrick, is by both lines of descent intimately associated with the history of Ireland, and is rightfully claimed as one of its national emblems.

The harp, too, has its story much later than that of St. Patrick's cross, but yet bringing an interesting connection with the patron saint.

The ancient arms of Ireland, from the time of Henry II., in 1172, had been three golden crowns set upon a blue ground.[76]

These ancient arms of Ireland are the arms of the Province of Munster, and are now worn on the helmet plate and glengarry of the Royal Munster Fusiliers regiment of the British army.

Henry VIII. was the first English king who used an Irish emblem. When he was proclaimed King of Ireland, he placed the harp of Hibernia upon the coinage which he then issued, instead of the "three crowns" which had been used under his predecessors, but he did not introduce the harp into his royal arms, nor place the red cross of St. Patrick upon his banner.

The first English monarch to insert an Irish emblem in the official insignia of the sovereign was Queen Elizabeth, who introduced one in the design of her "Great Seal." Instead of using the three Irish crowns, she inserted a harp as the emblem of the Irish nation, and among the banners displayed at her funeral Ireland was represented by a blue flag having upon it a golden harp surmounted by a crown.[77] James I., her successor, was the first king to introduce an Irish emblem into the "royal standard," and from that time onward the golden harp of Hibernia, on the ancient blue ground of the three Irish crowns, has been shown in one of the quarters of the British standard as the emblem of Ireland. In the arms of all the sovereigns, from James I., 1603 (15), to and including William IV., 1837, the front of the harp was formed by the female figure representing the goddess Hibernia. During the Victorian period a change was introduced in the shape of the harp, which has been altered to that of the ancient Irish harp, connected in form and legend with King Brian Boru (Boroimhe).

The exploits of this most noted of the early kings of Ireland had been mainly devoted to the defence of his kingdom against the invasions of the Danes during the period when, under Canute, they had well-nigh conquered all England.

Although in the main successful, he was slain in battle, according to some, in 1039,[78] or, as others report, in the hour of victory over the Danes at Clontarf, near Dublin, in 1014.[79]

The king, having accepted Christianity, presented, in 1004, a golden votive offering upon the altar of the church at Armagh, and here, in accordance with his dying request, his body was buried after the battle of Clontarf.[80]

This city of Armagh is reputed to have been founded about A.D. 445, by St. Patrick, and to this account is accredited the ecclesiastical pre-eminence which has always enshrined the city, for the Bishop of Armagh is the "Archbishop and Primate of all Ireland" of the Protestant Church, and it is the See city also of the "Primate of Ireland" of the Roman Catholic Church.

Of all the traditional patrons of Irish music, King Brian Boru was the most renowned, and thus in poetry and song his name became identified with the Irish harp.

The minstrelsy of the Irish harper has held sway and been cherished through all the ages by the Irish people, whose temperament may have been affected, or else has been most touchingly expressed, by its strange and mystic cadences. The sweet pathos of these ancient melodies has given tone and inspiration to most of the Irish songs, markedly to those of the sweet singer Moore, whose music has installed in affectionate memory,

In the old seal of Carrickfergus (31), granted by James I., the form of this ancient harp of Brian Boru is excellently displayed.

Within the circle are the initials of the King, I.R. (Jacobus Rex), and the date 1605, and on the shield in the centre are three Irish harps, having the rounded front pillar and the curious upper sweep of the neck, termed the "harmonic curve," of the type known as the Irish harp of Brian Boru.

Although this Irish harp was introduced in the seal of the Irish city during his reign, the emblem which had been placed in his royal arms by James I. as the emblem of Ireland was the angelic harp of Hibernia, and in this form it remained on the royal standards of all the succeeding sovereigns until Queen Victoria, in whose royal arms (32) the Irish harp was displayed.

In 1849, when Queen Victoria first visited Ireland, being the first occasion upon which a British Queen had ever visited the Island, a medal was struck to commemorate the event. On this are the profiles of Her Majesty the Queen and the Prince Consort, and on the reverse (33) is the old Irish harp surmounted by the royal crown.

It is true that the angelic harp is frequently to be seen upon the flags flown as royal standards, but the Irish harp is most beautifully shown in the coat-of-arms upon the back of Her Majesty's royal throne in the House of Lords at Westminster (34).

As the harp of the pagan goddess Hibernia had been changed to the Christian cross of St. Patrick, so now again it had been followed by the Irish harp of the Christian King, Brian Boru, and through his grave at St. Patrick's ancient city of Armagh is again connected with Ireland's patron saint. Thus, whether it be cross or harp, both the official emblems of Ireland are associated with St. Patrick.

During only one period in the early story of our Flag had Ireland been represented on its folds, as is shown in Cromwell's Jacks and in the Commonwealth Ensign (Pl. IV., figs. 1 and 2), but it had not been by a cross, as were the other nationalities, but by a golden harp on a blue ground.

Another emblem of Ireland, the green shamrock, is also connected in legend with St. Patrick, as having been used by him, through the lesson of its three leaves joined in one, in explaining the doctrine of the Trinity. Thus both the shamrock and the red saltire cross form the salient features of the insignia of the "Most Illustrious Order of St. Patrick," the Irish order of knighthood.

The Irish red cross on a white ground had been the ancient banner of the Irish family of the Fitzgeralds before the time of the conquest of Ireland under Henry II., and it still appears in the arms of their descendants (35). It appears to have been used as a flag at Cromwell's funeral, but notwithstanding its still earlier associations the red cross of St. Patrick does not seem to have been formally recognized as the general national emblem for Ireland until about the close of the seventeenth century. Its entrance into the Union Jack had long been delayed for reasons which will be pointed out.

Though the kings of England had, since Henry II., in 1172, been "lords paramount," and since Henry VIII. been "kings of Ireland," the national Jack of Ireland had not been joined with the other Jacks. When the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew were combined in the "additional" Jack of James, in 1606, it was not included, nor was it afterwards, in the first Union Jack of Queen Anne, in 1707; so that for all these centuries the red cross of St. Patrick had continued alone. At length, the time was coming when another change was to be made in the Union Jack, and it was in 1801, under George III., that the red saltire cross of Ireland first joined the two sister crosses. For the immediately previous two hundred years the Irishman had gallantly contributed his prowess to the glories won under the two-crossed Jack, in which his nation had not been represented; but from this time onward his own Irish cross entered into its proper place in the national Union Jack, and received its acknowledged position as the emblem of the Irish kingdom.

CHAPTER XV.

THE JACKS IN THE THIRTEEN COLONIES OF NORTH AMERICA.

We now turn to the history of the Jacks in the country to the south of Canada, where immigration from England had been building up the thirteen English colonies which subsequently became the United States of America. The Spanish flag had been planted in 1492 by Columbus upon San Salvador in the Bahamas. In 1497, Cabot had placed the St. George cross, the English Jack of Henry VII., on the North Atlantic shores, and the English claim by right of first discovery was thereafter laid to Newfoundland, Labrador, and the coast of America, from Cape Breton to Maine. Under Elizabeth, Raleigh, in 1584, expanded the claim of the St. George cross in Virginia far to the south, and in 1602, under the same flag, Bartholomew Gosnold, sailing out for the merchant adventurers of Bristol, exploited the shores of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Elizabeth, which still retain the names he then gave them. Other adventurers, too, there were, who were searching the unknown resources of the new continent. Jacques Cartier, in his second voyage, had, in 1535, occupied Stadacona (Quebec), and the French flag had been established on the shores of the St. Lawrence, the permanent settlement at Quebec being founded by Champlain, in 1608. For more than two hundred years the cross of St. George had been prospecting along the Atlantic coasts and laying claim to their possession, but no settlements were permanently established on these shores by any except the Frenchman, De Monts, who raised the white flag of France at Port Royal, on the Bay of Fundy, and laid the foundations of the town in 1605, and from this time on began the contest for their final ownership.

The sovereigns of France and England had with profuse liberality given royal grants of American territory to their venturesome merchant seamen, and in this manner James I., in 1605, partitioned off the larger part of these shores to the two merchant-adventurer companies of London and Plymouth.

The Plymouth Company was granted the country between what is now known as New Brunswick and Long Island, to be called Northern Virginia, and the London Company from the Potomac to Cape Fear in Carolina, to be called Southern Virginia—the two hundred miles intervening between them being left unoccupied in order to separate their boundaries, and so ensure peace between the rival companies, each company being warned not to make any occupation beyond the limits of the territory so allotted to them.

The London Company in 1607 established themselves in Virginia, where their Capt. Newport, after a weary and wave-tossed voyage, named their first shelter and landing place "Point Comfort," and the river the "James," and their settlement "Jamestown," in honour of his King.

It was into this interval between the two English companies that Hendrick Hudson sailed in 1609, and planted the Dutch flag, with its three lengthwise stripes of orange, white and blue, the orange being the uppermost, over New Amsterdam (now New York).

To these English colonists fell the honour of the first contest for the flag.

The French had occupied Acadia, and were quietly extending southward, when, in 1613, Commander Samuel Argall, of Southern Virginia,[81] finding them trading off Mount Desert, in what is now Maine, captured and destroyed their new shore settlement of St. Sauveur, and next year, heading an expedition sent out by his Colony, advanced farther northward, and destroyed their headquarters at Port Royal. Thus the colonists of Virginia, acting for their nation, defended the English claim, and repelled the interference made with the cross of St. George in its rights of prior discovery under Cabot.

The Plymouth Company had not been so energetic as were the London Company in the occupying of their "plantations," but, in 1614, Captain John Smith, on their behalf, settled a port which he called "New Plymouth," and gave the name of "New England" to the surrounding country.

While these things were going on in America the migration of the Puritans from England to Holland had taken place. These non-conforming Independents left their homes in England, in 1609, not from any disloyalty to their native land, but because their religious views forbade them to bend to what they considered were the unbiblical Church requirements of James I. To his ritual regulations they would not conform, so they removed themselves and their families to Holland. Strong in their English nationality they remained for ten years at Leyden, an isolated and unsettled colony in a foreign land. To England they could not return, no place in Europe was open to them for settlement without losing their language and changing their flag, and they must, therefore, leave Holland and seek the New World lands across the ocean. The Dutch offered them assistance and favourable arrangements for colonization in their Dutch possessions in America. They were also offered inducements by the London Company to settle on the Delaware, in their colony of Virginia. As it was considered that complications might arise if an English colony were to proceed across the seas under the Dutch flag, they declined the offer of Holland and accepted the English proposition, and the consent of King James was obtained to their repatriation in the English territory in America without conforming to the religious conditions to which they had so devotedly objected in the Old Land.

Thus they sought the new land, not as rebels, but as loyalists returning in gladness to their nation's flag.

Forming the "Pilgrim Company," in which they all took shares, a vessel named the Speedwell was purchased at Delft-Haven in Holland, and another named the Mayflower in London. The two parties joined at Southampton. After leaving the shores of England the Speedwell was found to be unseaworthy, and the two vessels, therefore, returned to England, when it was determined that the Mayflower should proceed alone. There not being sufficient accommodation on the one ship for the combined expeditions, a number were left behind. The Mayflower, a vessel of only 180 tons, sailed from Plymouth with about 100 of the "Pilgrims" crowded on board. On reaching the shores of America in November, 1620, after a voyage of two months and five days, they found that they were far to the north of the Virginia Colony to which they had been commissioned. Tired of the sea, but being hopeful that they would receive, as they subsequently did, a grant of land from the Plymouth Company, and being without a charter for the territory on which they were about to land, it became necessary to make a new agreement between themselves for the government of their colony. A "compact" was accordingly drawn up on board the Mayflower "off Cap-Codd," and signed by all the heads of families. In this document they described themselves as

and the date of the year is given as

As the Mayflower was an English ship she would carry the St. George cross flag on the foremast, and as they declared themselves to be loyal subjects of King James it is most probable that the "additional" Union Jack of James I. was also displayed at the main.

Such was the beginning of the migration of the Puritans from England, which, following this first colony, continued during the remainder of the century.

That the Pilgrims carried the English Jack is plainly shown by the controversies which arose from time to time in this "New England" district upon the subject of the use of the cross of St. George, not for want of any loyalty to it, but from their strict religious views.

John Endicott, and the Puritans who subsequently settled at Salem, objected to the cross in the flag as being an "idolatrous emblem," and, in 1634, "defaced the ensign by taking out one part of the red cross."[83]

Much discussion ensued upon these conscientious scruples, and the offenders were summoned to appear before the Court of Assistants, but decision was deferred for several meetings, "because the Court could not agree about the thing, whether the ensigns should be laid by, in regard that many refused to follow them." It was, however, ordered by the Commissioners for military affairs that all the ensigns should in the meantime be laid aside.

Endicott was finally tried at a general court held at Newtown, and "his offence found great; he judging the cross to be a sin, did not content himself to have it reformed at Salem, not taking care that others might be brought out of it; also laying a blemish on the other magistrates, as if they would suffer idolatry, and giving occasion to England to think ill of us." He was, however, lightly sentenced by suspension for one year of right to hold civil office, because "he did it out of tenderness of conscience and not of any evil intent."[84]

A suggestion was made that red and white roses should be inserted in the flag, instead of the cross, as being English emblems, and the ministers were "to write to England and consult the most wise and godly;" but nothing came of this suggestion.

Opinions must have continued strong in the controversy, for at the close of the year the commissioners appointed colours for the military companies, but left out the cross in them all, leaving the space blank, but they ordered that the King's arms were to be inserted in the flag which was to be used on the fort on Castle Island, at Boston.[85]

In the following year (1636) much heart-burning was occasioned by the masters of several ships trading to Boston declaring that because the King's colours were not displayed at the fort the colonists were all traitors and rebels. This imputation was most warmly resented by the people, and the captains were promptly tried by the Massachusetts court for this defamation of the loyalty of the colony.

The offenders acknowledged their error and made humble apology in open court, but in doing so suggested that the King's colours ought to be shown on the fort. To this answer was made, "that 'we had not the King's colours'; thereupon two of them did offer them freely to us. We replied that, for our part, we were fully persuaded that the cross in the ensign was idolatrous, and, therefore, might not set it in our ensign, but because the fort was the King's and maintained in his name, we thought that his own colours might be spread there."[86]

The King's own colours would be the two-crossed Jack of James, which Charles I. had, in 1634, declared as His Majesty's Jack to be the "ornament proper for our owne ships." This Jack was ordered to be thereafter displayed at the fort, lest it might again be thought that the colony had abated its allegiance.

In 1643, the colonies of Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut formed themselves for defence against the French and the Dutch into an alliance as the "United Colonies of New England."

That their forces had continued to use the two-crossed "King's Jack" of Charles I. is proved by the fact that they found it necessary, owing to the change of sovereignty in the Mother Country, to pass an order authorizing a change in their own flag. The Commonwealth of England had, in 1648, abolished the use of the two-crossed Jack. In 1651, the fleet of Cromwell which crossed the Atlantic was to be seen flying the single English Jack of St. George and the new Commonwealth Ensign at Barbadoes and in Virginia. Following the action of the Home Government, the General Court of Massachusetts overcame their local scruples and passed an order adopting the English ensign:

So the English Jack took the place of the Jack of James in America.

Under this St. George Jack, with its red cross and white ground, the colonists not only organized and defended their own territories, but also carried on active operations against the French. As in its earlier years, so also throughout the century, the extensions southward of the French settlements in Cape Breton and Acadia had been a menace to the colonies. The colony of Massachusetts itself took the matter in hand, and organized an expedition which it sent out under the leadership of Major Sedgwick, in 1654, when Port Royal was taken from the French, but, much to the chagrin of the colony, only to be restored to France, in 1667, by the peace of Breda.

The old controversy about the cross in the flag had by no means been settled by the decision of the General Court of Massachusetts, in 1651, and although it was so displayed officially, yet many individuals still held to the original religious objections.

In 1663, the "Ensign Red," with the plain red cross of St. George in the upper corner, had been ordered by Charles II. to be used.

Thomas Singleton, master of the ship Charles, notes (when off Boston) in his diary of a voyage to the American coast in 1679-80: "I observed that while the English flag or colour has a red ground with a small white field in the uppermost corner where there is a red cross, they have here dispensed with this cross in their colours and preserved the rest."[88]

The New England colonists were evidently flying the Ensign Red, but had taken the red cross out of the Jack in its upper corner, leaving only the white ground. It was in this it had been suggested that the roses of England should be introduced, and in which the "pine-tree" emblem was afterwards placed.

The importance of the particular flags which were to be used along these Atlantic coasts, where the nationalities were constantly coming into contact, was eminently increased by the terms of a treaty, made in 1686, between James II. and Louis XIV., providing "for rights and pre-eminences in the American seas." Under this it was agreed that,

and vice versa, the French were not to interfere with the British; and further,

Governor Andros brought out with him from England, in 1686, his official flag as Governor of New England. A drawing of this in the British State papers office[90] shows it to have been a large St. George Jack, having on the centre of the red cross a royal crown, and underneath the initials of the King, I.R. (Jacobus Rex), in gold. This Governor's flag was officially used by Governor Andros in the colonies of Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The united colonies of New England, moved, no doubt, by the necessities of the Treaty of Whitehall, passed an Order-in-Council, in 1686, directing the cross to be restored to their Colours. In this way the red cross of St. George came back into the blank white space which had been left in the upper corner of the Ensign Red.

We get some glimpse of the mental difficulties of the times from the diary of Samuel Sewall, an officer in the colonial forces. On August 20th, 1686, he writes:

He even contemplated the necessity of retiring from the service, and enters:

But the crosses were restored, and it was under this single cross Ensign Red that, during the war between William III. and Mary and Louis XIV., the nine colonies[92] united together, and, in 1690, of their own motion and at their own expense,[93] sent out a naval expedition from Boston, under Admiral William Phips, against the French in Canada. The fleet successfully attacked and again captured Port Royal,[94] but arriving before Quebec, above whose ramparts was flying the white flag and fleur-de-lis of France, was repulsed by the redoubtable Count Frontenac. The records of the expedition, and of the episode of the capture of the flag of the Admiral, which, being shot away from its halliards and falling into the water, was swum after and brought to shore by the venturesome French,[95] attest that this fleet of the United Colonies was sailing under the cross of St. George. A copy of the medal (36), issued by Louis XIV. of France in commemoration of the event, is given in the narrative,[96] showing three fleur-de-lis of France, and the cross of St. George on a flag reversed.

While the forces of the United Colonies thus used, in common, the English ensign, some of the colonies had distinctive flags. Massachusetts at times displayed the red ensign with a "pine-tree" on the white ground in the upper corner instead of the cross to which so much objection had been made. The flag of New England (37) was the English red ensign with the pine-tree, or else a globe signifying the New World, in the upper corner of the white canton bearing the cross of St. George. The instance given is taken from the old Dutch publication of 1711.[97]

This New England ensign was in continuous local use from 1686 to 1775.

The change in the English flag, made under Queen Anne, from the cross of St. George to the two-crossed Jack, brought a corresponding change in the union flag in America.

The narrative of the change in Massachusetts, in 1701, is given in Chapter XXVII. (page 280). In 1709, similar instructions were sent out to Governor Hunter for the Province of New York, and the drawing of the flag[98] which is attached to the documents is the same in 1709 as in the instructions of 1701.

Under this Queen Anne Union Jack, Port Royal was once more taken by the forces of the United Colonies, sent out from Boston under General Nicholson, in 1710, and its name changed in honour of their Queen to Annapolis, where both Royal name and British ensign have ever since remained.

The colonists had in all these expeditions stoutly proved their share in the prowess of the British Jacks. Acadia,[99] by the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), had been ceded to Britain, but Cape Breton had remained in the hands of the French, and Louisbourg having been created by them the strongest fortress in the New World, the British colonists determined upon its reduction.

In 1745, an expedition, entirely colonial, organized by General Shirley, of Massachusetts, and William Vaughan, of New Hampshire, sailed from Boston under General Pepperell. After a siege of forty days Louisbourg surrendered. In 1748, the fortress was again restored to the fleur-de-lis by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, but only to be retaken by Wolfe, in 1758, and the Queen Anne Jack, which the United Colonies had before placed above it, was restored and is shown again in the Louisbourg medal,[100] used to commemorate Wolfe's victory (38).

On yet another field the United Colonists carried the Union Jack. In 1762, when Havana was captured from the Spanish by Lord Albemarle, there were in his fleet of 203 vessels, and among his land forces of 12,000 men, alongside the men from across the sea, colonial contingents sent by the colonies of Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Maine.[101]

When Cuba was thus gained for the Union Jack the colonists of America were joined with their British brothers from the Old Land in lowering the flag of Spain, but the island was restored to Spain by the Treaty of Paris, February 10th, 1763.[102]

Thus for over two and a half centuries (1497-1762) had the English Jacks wrestled with the forests and battled along the shores of America, carried first by the merchant adventurers, and afterwards by the several and the United Colonies, as sign of their origin and allegiance. For yet another long period was the two-crossed Jack to be carried by those who had so manfully won competence and glory beneath it, so that at length, even when joining for contest with their parent realm, the Thirteen Colonies held its past and record in such esteem that they placed the Union Jack of Queen Anne in their new Union Ensign as a sign and remembrance of their common history.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE UNION FLAGS OF THE UNITED STATES.

The thirteen English colonies which in succession had been planted in North America, along the shores of the Atlantic from the French possessions in Acadia to the Spanish possessions in Florida, had each its own "colony flag"; the "United Colonies of New England" had devised the New England flag to distinguish their particular union; but the national flag which declared the union of all the colonies with one another, and with the Motherland beyond the seas, was the "Union Jack" of Great Britain.

It was under the Union Jack that the forces of the colonies of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia had marshalled in 1755, and with the English regulars had advanced, under the leadership of Braddock and Washington, to drive the French out of the Ohio Valley, but to meet with such signal disaster on the banks of the Monongahela.

In the same year, under the cross of St. George in their United Colonies flag, the colonists of New England joined in the victories over the French, and changed the name of the lake, by whose shores they fought, from "St. Sacrament" to "Lake George."

Under the successive Jacks the colonies had grown into commonwealths, had expanded their territories, and their sons had written their names in British history by gallant deed and notable achievement.

Thus the crosses in the Union Jack had a vivid meaning, and their local historic record had won for them the attachment of the people in the colonies.

The occupation of Quebec by Wolfe in 1759 and the subsequent retirement of French rule from Canada and the valley of the North Mississippi had freed the colonies from conflict with the power which had hitherto opposed their expansion beyond the Alleghanies. They were now free to exploit the West, which this victory of the parent realm had gained for them, and which was to be the wide field for their subsequent expansion. Combining together for these adventures had brought the separate colonies more into contact with each other and created points of internal union. At length the time came when rifts in the methods of government on this continent began to show themselves.

Troubles had been brewing between the colonies and the Home Government ever since the passing of the obnoxious Stamp Act of 1765, but, although the friction had at times been great, there was no intention on the part of the colonists of severing their allegiance from the parent realm. The cause of the colonists in America was largely espoused among the English people. Lord Effingham, upon his regiment (the 22nd) being ordered to America, resigned his commission in the British army, "rather than consent to bear arms against my fellow-subjects in America."[103]

No more ardent adherents or outspoken advocates for the self-government of the colonies were to be found in America than were Chatham, Burke, and Charles James Fox in the Parliament of England, and under the later and better conditions which have since governed the relations between Great Britain and her outlying colonies there would, in all probability, have been no breaking of the old home ties.

Engaged in the throes of a great European war, Britain had poured her men into Spain and could spare but few of her own for service in America. Forces, consisting largely of hired Hanoverian and Hessian soldiers, had been sent across the sea to enforce the objectionable enactments, and hostilities had broken out in June, 1775, between the resident citizens and these imported "regulars"; but even after this entanglement, the flag, which was introduced for the "United Colonies," was raised, not for the purpose of indicating any alteration in allegiance, but to evidence the local union of the still loyal colonies against the dictation of the impracticable home ministry.

That these were their views towards Great Britain they most plainly stated in the address they sent to the King immediately after their armies had been placed in the field: