26. Fort Niagara, 1759.
(Reproduced from an old print.)
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the Queen's advisers and designers were sailors, who had carried the red cross of St. George, and now that it was being withdrawn from the Ensign of the nation in favour of the newcomer, felt, like the admiral of old, that it was but due to its centuries of glorious service that evidence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
"The last day came, and Bois Le Grand Beheld with misty eyes The flag of France run down the staff, And that of England rise."[66]
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.
