According to the received rules of strict heraldry, in emblazoning a shield or a banner, a cross should be given one-third, and a saltire be given one-fifth of the width. On a shield this measurement of width is taken across the top, and on a banner or a flag it is measured perpendicularly along the flagstaff.
Applying this rule and measurement to our present Union Jack, and taking, as in fact they are, the red cross of St. George and its two borders as one cross, and the two saltire crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick and their two borders as one saltire, we shall find that the heraldic rules have been actually complied with by the official "draft" and by the regulations (Fig. 51), and that the combined cross is one-third, and the combined saltire one-fifth, of the width of the flag.
Sizes of the Crosses according to the Admiralty Regulations.
| One Combined Cross: | ||
| Red cross of St. George, 1/3 of 3/15 | width | 3/15 |
| Upper white border, 1/3 of 3/15 | 1/15 | |
| Lower white border, 1/3 of 3/15 | 1/15 | |
| 3/15=1/3 (one-third.) | ||
| One Combined Saltire: | ||
| Red of St. Patrick, 1/3 of 3/15 | 1/15 | |
| White border of St. Patrick, 1/6 of 3/15 | 1/30 | |
| Broad white of St. Andrew, 1/2 of 3/16 | 3/30 | |
| 6/30=1/5 (one-fifth.) |
It may be convenient to state these proportions as they would be in a Union Jack, of which the width on the flagstaff is 5 feet:
| Red of St. George, 1/5 of 5 feet | 1 ft. 0 in. | |
| Upper white border | 4 in. | |
| Lower white border | 4 in. | |
| ——— | ||
| 1 ft. 8 in. | or 1/3 of 5 ft. | |
| Red of St. Patrick | 4 in. | |
| White of St. Patrick | 2 in. | |
| Broad white of St. Andrew | 6 in. | |
| ——— | ||
| 1 ft. 0 in. | or 1/5 of 5 ft. |
It is possible that this form of compliance with the heraldic rules was fully intended; yet, even were it not so, it is at all events a happy coincidence which might be taken as a conformity to these rules, and thus the flag which has been confirmed in its shape by the usage and glory of centuries should be cheerfully accepted by the heraldically inclined as being completely satisfactory.
It is not to the point for them to say it might look better if it were made some other way, for that would be merely a matter of opinion; or that if the heralds had had the making of it they would have made it differently, but it was not of their making, that having been settled by the Council in the selected draft of which the heralds worded a description, or, as some state, a misdescription; but it cannot fail to be admitted by all, that, as now made, it has been made, in all its parts, in the way ordered by the successive Councils, in whom authority was vested for its designing and issue.
The proportions of the crosses and of the borders of our Union Jack are thus not only technically correct, but, of still higher importance, they also preserve in detailed sequence the historical proportions of the three nations and of the three national Jacks, which were, in 1801, joined together in completed union.