Chapter IV: Conclusion: , 117 (3)

In time of peace it is considered an insult to hoist the flag of one friendly nation over that of another. This has given rise to an order that national flags are not to be used for decoration or in dressing ships. This order has reference more particularly to two flags, which are in ordinary use as signal flags. One of these is the French tricolour, but with the red and blue transposed; the other is the Dutch flag turned upside down, and there are two pendants to match. An unintentional departure from this rule gave rise to some unpleasantness on one occasion in the early part of this century. On the 23d of April, 1819, the English frigate _Euryalus_, lying at St. Thomas in the West Indies, had dressed ship in honour of St. George's day--the fete of the Prince Regent--and in doing so had made use of the blue, white, and red flag, which four years before had been the national flag of France. A three-coloured pennant hung down from the spanker boom and trailed in the water, and another three-coloured flag was at the lower end of the line pendant from the flying boom. This was observed by the French Rear-admiral Duperre, who was there in the _Gloire_, and he demanded and received apologies for what he conceived to be an insult offered to a flag which had lately been the flag of France, and under which he and many of his officers and men had served.[43]

[43] _Heraldry of the Sea_, p. 28.

If a foreign flag is hoisted on shore--as it often is in compliment to some distinguished stranger--it must have the staff to itself. In 1851, when the queen of Louis Philippe visited Oban, the proprietor of the Caledonian Hotel, at which she resided, in compliment to his visitor, and in ignorance, no doubt, of the proprieties of the case, hoisted the French flag over the Union. This excited the indignation of an old pensioner, John Campbell, who had been a sergeant in the 71st Highlanders--the regiment of Campbell of Lochnell--and he went to the innkeeper and demanded that matters should be put right. As no attention was paid to his remonstrance, he then and there cut down the French flag, and dared the innkeeper to hoist it again in that manner. The residents in Oban were so pleased with Campbell's spirited conduct that they presented him with a silver-headed stick.

In gun practice it is also held to be an insult to take as a mark the flag of another nation, and sometimes unintentional offence has been given through mistakes about the flags in such circumstances. For the following I am indebted to a distinguished naval officer who was cognizant of the circumstances. Some twenty years ago, when the French had an army of occupation in Syria, and their fleet and ours were lying amicably together at Beyrout, some of the English ships having occasion to practise the men with their rifles, put out their respective targets--which generally consisted of bits of old flags fastened to a stick, and stuck in a small cask anchored off at the required distance--and commenced firing. Presently a boat with a superior officer was seen pulling in hot haste from the French flagship. It afterwards transpired that the boat was conveying a polite request that the English would refrain from firing on the French flag--the officer at the same time pointing to an exceedingly dirty piece of bunting which was being riddled by the bullets from one of her Majesty's ships. "That's not the French flag," was the answer of the English. "Yes, I assure you," the Frenchman replied, "we are nearer than you are, and can see the colours. And, pardon me," he added, "another of your ships is at the present moment, in this Turkish port, firing on the Turkish flag"--pointing at the same time to another target, consisting of a faded bit of red bunting. Inquiries were made, and what had been taken for the Tricolour was found to be a piece of an old condemned Union Jack, that had unfortunately been nailed on to the staff without due regard to the position of the colours, while the so-called Turkish flag was discovered to be a fragment of an old English red ensign.

To the same naval officer I am indebted for the following amusing incident, which I am glad to give in his own words, as he was personally concerned in it. "About the same time," he writes, "another occurrence of the same kind took place at Larnaca, in Cyprus. It happily ended well, but at one time it looked quite serious. One of our surveying vessels had taken advantage of a lull in the work to practise her crew with her formidable armament of two twenty-four pounders, and on a bright calm Mediterranean morning the gunner was sent for by the senior lieutenant, and directed to prepare a target. But here there arose a difficulty. The ship had been a long time from Malta, stores of all kinds were scarce, and of old bunting there was absolutely none. The gunner was in despair, but a marine came to the rescue, and offered his pocket-handkerchief as a substitute. It was about the usual size of such articles, and as it had been bought at Malta while disturbances were pending at Naples, it had the Italian colours, green, white, and red, together with a pendant, printed on it, and on the white part some patriotic sentences in Italian. The whole presented an ancient and faded appearance, but the gunner accepted it with thanks.

"So it was duly nailed on a staff stuck into a small cask, and anchored about 600 yards to seaward. After the firing from the howitzers was finished the men were ordered to fire on it with rifles, which for a time they did. While this was going on a small French brig happened to be lying in the roads, and during the forenoon a boat was observed pulling from her in the direction of the target, but it did not venture very close; the firing was not suspended, and nothing further was thought about it. Before going to dinner in the middle of the day, a boat was sent to examine the target to see if it would float, as it was intended to continue the practice in the afternoon, and although it was reported to have been knocked about a good deal, it was thought it might remain afloat as long as it would be required, and so it was left. About an hour afterwards, however, it disappeared, and went to the bottom.

"The lieutenant, who had been weary with his work and had gone to bed early, was much astonished at being sent for by the captain about midnight. A formal despatch from our consul had come on board, inclosing a communication from the French representative giving a detailed account of what was described as a gross insult to the French flag, perpetrated by H.M.S. ----, and demanding all kinds of apologies. The prime mover in the affair, it appeared, was a certain captain Napoleon something, the commander of the little brig. His story was that he had seen with indignation the flag of his country--in size six feet square by his account--carried out by an English man-of-war boat, and deliberately fired upon. He and his crew, he said, had got into their boat determined to rescue the desecrated ensign, 'even at the risk of their lives,' but on getting near they had thought better of it, and pulled ashore instead. Here he had collected all the French residents he could get, whom he harangued, and having persuaded them that the scarcely visible speck was in truth their national flag, he got them to sign a strongly worded protest, and go with it along with him in a body to the French consul. Reparation, they said, must be made--the insulted flag must be saluted. So great was the excitement and so plausible the story that the French consul, pending negotiations, sent to Beyrout requiring the immediate presence of a French man-of-war. In fact there was all the groundwork of a very pretty row. Meantime the cause of all the commotion was lying at the bottom of the sea, with five or six fathoms of water over it. A written explanation of the circumstance was sent from the ship, and a meeting arranged for next day at the English consulate; and in the meantime a number of boats were sent early in the morning to try and fish up the bone of contention, as without it there was only the English word against the French. At the consulate there was a stormy meeting--much hard swearing and vociferation on the part of the French captain and his crew, with the affidavits of any number of respectable French residents, formally drawn up and signed. Everybody was getting very angry, and prospect of an amicable settlement there was none, when in a momentary lull the English lieutenant asked the French captain--who had for the fiftieth time declared that it _was_ a French flag, and six feet square at least--'whether it was likely that he knew more about it than the marine who had blown his nose with it for the last six months.' This in some measure restored good humour. The meeting separated in a more friendly spirit than had at first seemed possible, and when, on the following day, a lucky cast of the grapnel brought to the surface the innocent cause of the disturbance, there was an end of the matter. Torn by bullets, draggled and wet as it was, the wretched handkerchief was borne in triumph to the French consulate, and of course there was no more to be said. The consul made the proper _amende_, and the man-of-war, which actually appeared from Beyrout a few hours afterwards to vindicate the honour of the French flag, returned to her anchorage."

I shall just add one more incident of the same kind, for which I am indebted to another naval officer. In 1879 an English corvette visited Tahiti. The island, being under French protection, flies a special flag, and as it is one which is not supplied to English men-of-war, it is usual, when it is necessary for them to salute, to borrow a protectorate flag from the authorities. On the occasion in question, accordingly, the flag was sent off by the governor's aide-de-camp (a naval officer) on the evening of the corvette's arrival at Papeite, and the flag having been hoisted on the following morning, the salute was duly fired. But the display of the flag caused a terrible commotion on shore. On such occasions the whole population turns out to see the salute, and the beach of the beautiful land-locked, or rather reef-inclosed, harbour was crowded with French and Tahitians watching the corvette, which was moored close under the town. The cause of the commotion was that the flag had been improperly made, so that in hoisting it the French ensign, by pure inadvertence, appeared underneath that of Tahiti. The indignation of the French was great, and they hastened to complain to the governor that their flag had been deliberately insulted by her Majesty's ship. The mistake, fortunately, lay entirely with the authorities on shore. It was only on hauling it down that the officer in command found it had been caused by the flag being improperly constructed, the technical explanation being that the distance line had been sewed in, the wrong way, with the taggle towards the bottom of the flag--a very trifling thing in itself, but which, if unexplained, might have led to serious consequences. Of course the flag was immediately sent to the governor with the explanation, and there was an end of it. So much for naval flags.

FLAGS OF THE BRITISH ARMY.

I have already noticed incidentally some of the flags used in the armies of England in early times. Those used in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and early in the fourteenth, were, besides those of the knights and bannerets, the Royal Standard and the banners of St. George, of St. Edmund, and of St. Edward. Subsequently various changes took place which it is unnecessary to follow.

At present in the British army every regiment of infantry has two flags. They are both made of silk, in this differing from sea flags, which are usually made of bunting. With the exception of the Foot Guards, the first or Queen's colours of every regiment is the Union or National Flag, with the imperial crown in the centre, and the number of the regiment beneath in gold. The second or regimental colours are, with certain exceptions, of the colour of the facing of the regiment, with the Union in the upper corner. The second colours of all regiments bear the devices or badges and distinctions which have been conferred by royal authority. Fig. 28 is a representation of the regimental or second colours of the first battalion of the 24th Regiment, for which I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Albert Woods. It will serve as an example of the regimental colours of other regiments. The pole, it will be observed, is surmounted by the royal crest, and this is common to all regiments carrying colours. The ground of the flag is grass green. The crown and wreath are "proper," that is of the natural colours. The scrolls are gold with black letters.

The first or royal colours of the Foot Guards are crimson, and bear certain special distinctions besides those authorized for the second colours--the whole surmounted by the imperial crown. The second, or regimental colours, of the Foot Guards is the Union, with one of the ancient badges conferred by royal authority. The first battalion of the Scots Fusilier Guards possesses the high distinction of carrying on their first colours the royal arms of Scotland.

The colours of infantry are as a rule carried by the two junior lieutenants, and our military annals present many examples of devoted heroism by the standard-bearers in defence of their charge. Among such incidents few are more interesting than the loss and recovery of the Queen's colours of the first battalion of the 24th Regiment in the African campaign of 1878-79, to which I have already referred. It will be recollected that Lieutenants Melville and Coghill, after crossing the river Tugela with the Queen's colours, were overtaken and attacked by overwhelming numbers and shot down. They died bravely, revolvers in hand, but their pursuers failed to get possession of their precious charge--the colours having been found near them when the bodies were recovered. The Queen was much affected by this incident, and bestowed on the young heroes after death the highest distinction for valour in her power--the Victoria cross. On the arrival of the colours in England the Queen expressed a wish to see them, and they were taken to Osborne, where her Majesty tied on them a small wreath of immortelles as a mark of her deep sense of the heroism of the two young officers who gave their lives to save the flag. Fig. 29 shows the colours in the state in which they were, when presented to the Queen, with the wreath placed upon them by her Majesty.

The colours of the second battalion of the 24th had been left in camp when the troops advanced to meet the Zulus, and they were consequently captured. No trace of them could be found till some time afterwards when the pole with its crown was recovered by a party of the 17th Lancers in a Zulu kraal near Ulundi. This remnant continued to be carried by the regiment for upwards of a year, when new colours were presented to them at Gibraltar on behalf of the Queen by Lord Napier of Magdala. The old colours, or rather their pole with the crown, were first trooped. The new colours were then uncovered, and, after consecration, presented--Lord Napier stating that her Majesty knew very well that the flag had not been lost through any default of the battalion, but only in consequence of their having been placed in camp when the battalion went to the front under the general commanding.

The presentation of new colours with the accompanying consecration service is an interesting ceremony. As the form may not be generally known, I shall describe a recent one when new colours were presented by the Prince of Wales to the first battalion of the 23d Regiment (the Royal Welsh Fusiliers) on their embarkation for India. It is specially interesting in connection with the history of the old ragged colours which were then superseded. They had been presented by the late Prince Consort thirty-one years before, and in the Crimea they were the first which were planted on the heights of the Alma. Two lieutenants were successively shot while holding them, and they were finally seized by Sergeant O'Connor, who, though wounded, held them aloft and rallied the regiment. For this service he was decorated with the Victoria cross. Shortly afterwards he received his commission, and subsequently he became colonel of the battalion. On the recent arrival of the troops at Portsmouth they were drawn up on the military recreation ground, and the Prince and Princess of Wales having taken their place at the saluting point, the regiment marched past, headed by the goat which always accompanies it. The old colours were then trooped and conveyed to the rear, and three sides of a square having been formed, with a pyramid of the drums in the centre, the new colours were uncased. The royal party then advanced, and the senior chaplain of the regiment read the Consecration service. The Queen's colours and the regimental colours were then handed to the prince, and he presented them to the two lieutenants who received them kneeling. The prince having spoken a few appropriate words, and the colonel having replied, the colours were saluted by the whole regiment. Another march past, and the presentation of the officers to the prince, concluded the ceremony.

In the cavalry the standards of regiments of Dragoon Guards are of crimson silk damask, embroidered and fringed with gold, and their guidons, anciently called "guydhomme"--a swallow-tailed flag--are of crimson silk. Each is inscribed with the peculiar devices, distinctions, and mottoes of the regiment. The standards and guidons of cavalry are carried by troop sergeant-majors. The Hussars and Lancers have no standards. They were discontinued, for what reason I do not know, by William IV., and their badges and devices are now borne on their appointments. Neither the Royal Engineers nor the Rifles have colours. Neither have the Royal Artillery; nor is it necessary that they should have any on which to record special services, for the Artillery is represented in every action. Their appropriate motto, _Ubique_, is borne on their appointments. None of the Volunteer regiments carries colours.

The queen's and regimental colours always parade with the regiment. On march they are cased, but they are always uncased when carried into action.

For military authorities "when embarked in boats or other vessels," there is, as we have seen, a special flag. It is the Union with the royal initials in the centre on a blue circle, surrounded by a green garland, and surmounted by the imperial crown.

USE OF FLAGS BY PRIVATE PERSONS.

In regard to the use of the national flag by private persons, there is a positive rule as to marine flags, but none, so far as I am aware, as to its use on shore. I have occasionally seen it flown on shore with a white border, under an impression, apparently, that this difference was necessary, but it is unmeaning, and there is no authority for it. In numberless instances we see one or other of the marine Ensigns hoisted on shore over gentlemen's houses, or used in street decoration on the occasion of public rejoicings; but nothing could be more absurd, as the ensign is exclusively a ship flag.

Any private individual entitled to armorial bearings may carry them on a flag. In such cases the arms should not be on a shield, but filling the entire flag.

The flags and banners represented in works on heraldry have almost invariably a fringe; but this is optional. If a fringe is used it should be composed of the livery colours, each tincture of the arms giving its colour to the portion of the fringe which adjoins it. In the British army the colours of the different regiments are fringed.

FOREIGN FLAGS: FRANCE.

My notice of foreign flags must be short. Those of France and America have naturally most interest for us.

Previous to the Revolution the French can hardly be said to have had a national flag. The colours of the reigning families--changing as they did with each fresh dynasty, as was the case in our own early history--were accepted in the place of national standards, while each regiment in the army followed colours of its own. The celebrated _Chape de Saint Martin de Tours_ and the _Oriflamme_ of the Abbey of Saint Denis, were, like the labarum of Constantine, ecclesiastical banners, symbolic of the two patrons of Christian France watching over her in her battles. The Chape de Saint Martin was a banner imitating in form a cape or cloak, and was of blue. The Oriflamme was red with a green fringe. By the end of the tenth century this had become the royal standard. In one of the windows of the Cathedral of Chartres (of the thirteenth century) there is a representation of Henri Sieur de Argentin et du Mez, Marshall of France under St. Louis, receiving from the hands of St. Denis a banner which is supposed to be the Oriflamme. Fig. 30 is a copy of this interesting old work of art. The banner, it will be observed, has five points; but in other examples it has only three, each having attached to it a tassel of green silk.

The royal banner of St. Louis was blue powdered with fleurs-de-lis in gold, and these fleurs-de-lis have remained since the eleventh or twelfth century a peculiarly French and royal device. It is indeed one of extreme antiquity, the emblem of a long-forgotten worship--older by many ages than any record of the doctrine of the Trinity, of which some have supposed this flower to be an emblem.[44]

[44] Laughton's _Heraldry of the Sea_.

In the reign of Charles VI. the blue field ceased to be _powdered_ with fleurs-de-lis, and was charged with three only--two and one. The white flag which became the standard of the kings of France was probably not introduced till the reign of Henry IV. But there is great confusion in the history of the French flags, and this is increased by the use of personal colours at sea, which continued among the French to a much later period than among the English. In the colours of the French regiments there has been great variety of design. Under the old monarchy the regimental colours were of two kinds--one was the _drapeau-colonel_, or royal; the other, called _drapeau d'ordonnance_, took its device from the founder of the particular regiment which carried it, or from the province of its origin. A common form of the royal colours was a white cross on a blue field. In other examples, sometimes the cross and sometimes the field were powdered with fleurs-de-lis. In some instances the field was green. The flag displayed by the French in 1789 was a white cross on a blue ground, with one fleur-de-lis at each corner of the field, and the motto "Patrie et Liberte."

The Tricolour was introduced at the Revolution, but the origin of the design is unknown. Possibly a trace of it may be found in an illumination in one of the MS. copies of Froissart. It represents the King of France setting out against the Duke of Brittany, and his majesty is preceded by a man on horseback bearing a swallow-tailed pennon, the first part containing the ancient arms of France, and each of the tails--composed of three stripes--red, white, and green.

For some time after the Revolution the white field was retained. When the three colours came to be used there appears to have been at first no fixed order in arranging them, and in some cases they were placed vertically, and in others horizontally. By a decree in 1790 it was ordained that in the navy the flag on the bowsprit--the jack--should be composed of three equal bands placed vertically, that next the staff being red, the middle white, and the third blue. The flag at the stem was to have in a canton the jack above described (occupying one fourth of the flag), and to be surrounded by a narrow band, the half of which was to be red and the other blue, and the rest of the flag to be white. In 1794 this flag was abolished, and it was ordered "that the national flag shall be formed of _the three national colours_ in equal bands placed vertically, the hoist being blue, the centre white, and the fly red." It would appear, however, that this arrangement was not for some time universally adopted, and that old flags continued to be used. Thus, in the great picture by De Loutherbourg at Greenwich, the French ships are represented as wearing the suppressed flag of 1790; while, in a rare print preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, representing the magnificent ceremony at which the first Napoleon distributed eagles to the troops in 1804, the banners suspended over the Ecole Militaire in the Champ de Mars, where the ceremony took place, show the three colours in fess, that is, in horizontal lines. But the vertical arrangement must have been soon afterwards generally adopted, and this continued to be the flag both of the French army and navy during the Empire. On the return of the king in 1814, and again in 1815, it was abolished, and the white flag restored; but the Tricolour was reintroduced in 1830, and it has remained in use since.[45]

[45] See French Imperial Standard, and National Flag, Plate IV.
Nos. 2 and 3.

When the Emperor Napoleon assumed the sovereignty of Elba he had a special flag made. It will be recollected that he was allowed to retain the title of emperor, and although the island which comprised his dominions was only sixty miles in circumference, the inhabitants barely 12,000, his household 35 persons, and his entire army only 700 infantry and 60 cavalry, he considered it necessary to have a "national flag." According to Sir Walter Scott, it bore on a white field a bend charged with three bees. But the emperor was preparing another and very different flag for his small army, of which I am able to give a representation from a very rare coloured engraving.[46] It was the tricolour of France, composed of the richest silk with the ornaments elaborately embroidered in silver. It bore the imperial crown with the letter N, and the eagle, on each of the blue and red portions, with the imperial bees; and over all the inscription, "L'Empereur Napoleon a la Garde Nationale de L'lle d'Elbe." To the staff, the top of which was surmounted by a golden eagle, was suspended a tricoloured sash also richly embroidered in silver. This splendid standard was presented by Napoleon to his guards in Elba shortly before his invasion of France in 1815. On the reverse side there was subsequently embroidered the inscription, "Champ de Mai"--the flag having been a second time presented by the emperor to his guards at that celebrated meeting, a short time before they marched for Waterloo. The standard was captured by the Prussians, and on their entering Paris was sold to an English gentleman who brought it to England.[47]

[46] See Frontispiece.

[47] When the drawing of it was taken it was in the possession
of BernardBrocas, Esq., at Wokefield.

The lately-abolished Eagle (Fig. 31) was borne as a standard in the French army during the Empire only. It was introduced by Napoleon I., who adopted it from the Romans. The ribbon attached was of silk five inches wide and three feet long, and richly embroidered. After Napoleon's fall the eagles were abandoned, but they were again introduced by Napoleon III. In consequence of their intrinsic value, they proved in the Franco-German war a much-coveted prize among the Germans, who captured a considerable number of them on the successive defeats of the French. The first Napoleon was very careful of the Eagles. He himself tells us, in one of the conversations at St. Helena, that he established in each regiment two subaltern officers as special guardians of the Eagle. "Ils n'avaient d'autre arme," he says, "que plusieurs paires de pistolets: d'autre emploi que de veiller froidement a bruler la cervelle de celui qui avancerait pour saisir l'aigle."

The Dutch and Russian ensigns have the same tinctures as those of the present French flag, but borne fess ways--that is horizontally. The former has the red uppermost. The latter has _the metal_, the white, uppermost, and the two _colours_, the blue and the red--against all our notions of heraldic propriety--placed together below. (See Dutch and Russian flags, Plate IV. Nos. 6 and 8.)

The Belgian colours adopted in 1831 are arranged as the French, but the colours are black, yellow, and red. (Plate IV. No. 5.) The flag of Prussia is also composed of three stripes-black, white, and red, but arranged horizontally. (Plate IV. No. 4.) The flag of Mexico is arranged like that of France, but the colours are green, white, and red. (Plate IV. No. 10.)

THE AMERICAN FLAG.

The history of the American flag is interesting. Previous to the Declaration of Independence the different colonies retained the standards of the mother country with the addition of some local emblem. Massachusetts, for example, adopted the pine-tree, a device which was also placed on the coins. In 1775 "the Union with a red field"--a red ensign--was displayed at New York on a liberty poll with the inscription, "George Rex and the Liberties of America;" and it is interesting to note that the first flag adopted as a national ensign by the ships of the United States consisted of the horizontal stripes with which we are familiar, but with the British Union still retained in a canton. This was replaced by the stars on a blue ground. Some of the flags first used--at the time when only twelve states had ratified the articles of convention--bore only twelve stars. On the 14th of August, 1777, Congress resolved "that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes alternately red and white, and that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." (See Fig. 32.)

It has been said that the design of the flag was derived from arms borne by the family of Washington; but there is no foundation for this. An American writer--with probably as little ground for the statement--says: "the blue field was taken from the Covenanters' banner in Scotland, likewise significant of the League and Covenant of the United Colonies against oppression, and incidentally involving vigilance, perseverance, and justice. The stars were then disposed in a circle symbolizing the perpetuity of the union, as well as equality with themselves. The whole was a blending of the various flags used previous to the war, viz. the red flags of the army and white colours of the floating batteries--the gem of the navy."[48]

[48] Article on "Flags," by H. K. W. Wilcox, New York, _Harper's
Magazine_, July, 1873.

In 1795 it was ordained that the stripes should be increased to fifteen and the stars to the same number; but in 1818 Congress ordered a return to the thirteen stripes but with twenty stars, and that on the admission of any new state a star should be added. Thus the old number of stripes perpetuated the original number of the states forming the union, while the added stars show the union in its existing state. In consequence of the greatly increased number of stars, the circular arrangement had to be abandoned, and they are now disposed in parallel lines. (See flag of the United States, Plate V. No. 8.) The construction of the first national standard, from which the stars and stripes were afterwards adopted, took place at Philadelphia in 1777 under the personal direction of Washington aided by a committee of Congress.

The flag of the American admirals is composed of the stripes alone, and the stars are used separately as a jack. One of the first American flags used at sea, and bearing only the twelve stars, is still preserved. It is the flag which was flown by the celebrated Paul Jones from his privateer, the _Bon homme Richard_, in his engagement with the English ship _Serapis_ on 23d September, 1799. In the course of the action the flag having been shot away from the mast-head, Lieutenant Stafford, then a volunteer in Paul Jones' ship, leaped into the sea after it, and recovered and replaced it, being severely wounded while performing this action. The flag thus saved was afterwards presented to him by the marine committee of Congress, and it now (1880) belongs to his son.[49]

[49] Letter in _Daily Telegraph_, 18th March, 1880, by Mr. W.
Stafford Northcote.

I may mention that the white and red stripes are not peculiar to the American flag. A flag of similar design was for a long time a well-known signal in the British navy, being that used for the red division to draw into line of battle.

OTHER FOREIGN FLAGS.

The flag of Liberia is very like that of the United States, being composed of red and white stripes with a blue canton. The only difference is that the latter bears only one star. (See the flag of Liberia, Plate V. No. 6.) The flag of Bremen is also composed of red and white stripes.

Spain from the first period of her greatness bore the Castilian flag, quartering Castile and Leon. In an old illumination representing the coronation of Henry, son of John, King of Castile, there are on the king's left hand two men, unarmed, the one holding a banner of Castile and Leon quarterly, the other a blue pennon charged with three kings' heads-the banner of the three kings of Cologne. On his majesty's right hand a man, also unarmed, holds a shield with the arms of Castile and Leon. It was this last device, as a national flag, that was carried by the ships of Columbus. But Columbus had also as a personal flag one given to him by Queen Isabella--a white swallow-tailed pennon bearing a Latin cross in green between the letters FY crowned. These two flags are noteworthy as the first that crossed the Atlantic.

The present royal standard of Spain is of very complicated construction (see Plate V. No. 1), embracing among its bearings the arms of Castile and Leon, of Aragon, Sicily, Burgundy, and others. The national ensign is in marked contrast by its simplicity. It is composed of yellow and red stripes--derived from the bars of Aragon. (See Plate V. No. 2.)

Austria at first bore on her flag the Roman eagle. Now her war ensign is red, white, and red placed horizontally, and in the centre a shield of the same within a gold border (the arms of the Dukes of Austria), surmounted by the royal crown. (See Plate V. No. 3.) The merchant flag is the same without the shield and crown. The Austro-Hungarian flag has the lower stripe half red and half green, with two shields, one on the right containing the arms of Austria, and the other bearing the arms of Hungary. (See Plate V. No. 4.)

The flag of Italy was designed by Napoleon I. on his declaration of the Kingdom of Italy. It is a modification of the French, the division of the field next the staff being, instead of blue, green, which, it is known, was a favourite colour of the emperor. In the centre is a red shield charged with a white cross--the arms of the Dukes of Savoy, now borne by Italy. A representation of the Italian merchant flag will be found on Plate V. No. 5. The war ensign is the same, except that the shield is surmounted by the royal crown.

In the construction of the flag of Norway, curiously enough, the same blunder has been committed as in our own Union. It is "described" as a blue cross _fimbriated_ white; but the border, as the flag is worn, is too broad, and it really represents two crosses, a blue cross superimposed on a white one--just as our St. George's cross, as represented in our national colours, is nothing but a red cross superimposed on a white one. Mr. Laughton accordingly looking at the Norwegian flag in this light, calls it the white flag of Denmark with a blue cross over it,[50] which it was certainly not intended to be. The flag is shown in Plate V. No. 11. The Swedish-Norwegian union in the canton was introduced in 1817, when the two countries were united under one king.

[50] _Heraldry of the Sea_, p. 23.

The Danish flag (see Plate V. No. 7) is the oldest now in existence. The tradition is that it descended from Heaven ready made in the year 1219 in answer to the prayer of King Waldemar, as he was leading his troops to battle against the pagans of the Baltic. Be that as it may, it certainly dates from the thirteenth century.

The flag of Portugal has borne a conspicuous part in history, and the devices in it carry us back to a very early period. The present royal standard is red with a red shield in the centre charged with towers or castles for the kingdom of Algarve, which Alphonsus III. got from the King of Castile when he married the daughter of the latter in 1278; and in the centre there is a white shield bearing on it the shields of the five Moors placed crossways. The Portuguese national flag is per pale, blue and white, and in the centre point is the same device as appears on the royal standard. The present flag, however, is only a modification of the old flag which was carried by the early discoverers, and which brought glory to Portugal in the days of Prince Henry the Navigator. (See the national flag of Portugal, Plate V. No. 12.)

The royal standards of Norway and Sweden, and also the ensign of these kingdoms, are peculiar in preserving the ancient form of having the fly ending in three points. (See the Swedish standard, Plate V. No. 10.)

Greece has adopted the colours of Bavaria in compliment to her first king. (See Plate VI. No. 7.)

The devices on some of the Asiatic flags are peculiar. That of Burmah bears a peacock; Siam, a white elephant; and China, a hideous-looking dragon. (See these flags, Plate VI. Nos. 1, 2, 3.) On the flag of Bolivia (Plate VI. No. 4) is the representation of a volcano, suggested in all probability by the great volcano of Serhama, which rises in Western Bolivia to the height of 23,000 feet. Japan, the land of the far east, the source of the sun, as her name signifies, has adopted for her flag the sun rising blood-red. (See Plate V. No. 9.)

The flag of Brazil, which is very inartistic in its construction, bears among other devices the armillary sphere of Portugal. (See Plate VI. No. 8.)

In Plates IV. V. and VI. will be found representations of the flags of other kingdoms and republics. These speak for themselves, and do not call for particular description.

But I must now bring these notices to a close. To the true patriot of every country the national flag must be a subject of pride. If, as a French writer observes, it does not always lead him to victory, it inspires him to fight well, and if need be to die well. "We pay to it," says the same writer, "royal honours. When it is paraded--in rags it may be, and with faded colours, bearing in letters of gold the names of victories--the troops present arms, the officers salute it with the sword, and the white heads of veteran generals are uncovered and bent before the ensign." To the soldier its loss is one of the greatest calamities. In Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812 not many of his flags remained with the Russians. Of those which were not carried off most were burned, and of some of these the officers drank the ashes. More recently the same thing is said to have been done at Metz and Sedan. So a French writer tells us, and he characterizes the act as "_communion sublime_!"

What the flag is, indeed, to the sailor and the soldier, whether when shaken out in battle or when displayed in memory of great victories, none but the soldier and the sailor can realize. At the interment of Lord Nelson, when his flag was about to be lowered into the grave, the sailors who assisted at the ceremony ran forward with one accord and tore it into small pieces, to be preserved as sacred relics. "I know," says Charles Kingsley--in those _Brave Words_ which he addressed to our soldiers then fighting in the trenches before Sebastopol, "I know that you would follow those colours into the mouth of the pit; that you would die twice over rather than let them be taken. Those noble rags, inscribed with noble names of victory, should remind you every day and every hour that he who fights for Queen and country in a just cause is fighting not only in the Queen's army but in Christ's army, and that he shall in no wise lose his reward."

INDEX.

A.

Armenian Flag, 110.

Army, British, Flags of, 96.

Artillery--have no colours, 101.

Assyrian Standards, 17, 19.

Austria, Flag of, 114.

Austro-Hungary, Flag of, 114.

B.

Banner of St. Cuthbert, 33.

Banner-bearers, 33.

Bannerets, 30.

---- their following, 32.

Banners, 29.

Belgian Flag, 109.

Beverly, Sir John of, his banner, 33.

Black Prince at Navarete, 31.

"Blue Blanket," 50, 51.

"Bluidy Banner" of Covenanters, 52.

Bolivia, Flag of, 116.

Brazil, Flag of, 117.

Bryon, Sir Guy de, banner-bearer of Edward III., 34.

Burmah, Flag of, 116.

---- British, Flag of, 71.