The saltire space of the Union Jack of Queen Anne has been divided equally, and the national banners of St. Patrick and St. Andrew are thus given each a proportion of one-third for its CROSS and one-sixth for its BORDER or "fimbriation."
The description given in the "blazon" respecting the red cross of St. George, stated that it was "fimbriated as the saltire." The regulations defined this as "for the white border to the cross of St. George," and there was allotted, not simply a one-sixth proportion due a "fimbriation," but the full proportion of one-third, equal to that of a national cross, and in this way the white border to the cross of St. George is as wide as the cross of each of the other nations.
The width of the border cannot this time, as was said of the change of 1707, be the result of the "carelessness of a draughtsman,"[134] for it is made with premeditated carefulness, and, more than that, the measurements are set down in exact figures. Thus the reason for the broadening of the border in the flag of 1707 has been justified by the flag of 1801 and its authority confirmed.
This broad white border, given to surround the red cross of St. George, is not only the formal recognition of the white ground of the English Jack, which had been placed in the flag of 1707, but it is also a recognition of the white ground of the Irish Jack, which was now for the first time entering the Union Jack, so that the broad border in the flag of 1801 represents the grounds of two national Jacks.
The practical proportions of the pattern drafts are thus fully carried out in the Admiralty pattern. Some twenty years ago the Garter King of Arms had his attention drawn to the Admiralty flag as used in the navy, and he was asked to suggest an alteration. He declined, because, he said, "the flag was made according to the drawing, and it was exhibited in the same way on the colours of the Queen's Infantry Regiments."
It is a serious thing to deface or alter the national flag of a nation, and if any changes have been made in any individual instances they are the result of error, and have not been made with such paramount authority of Sovereign, Parliament and Council, as have been the Union Jacks of Queen Anne and King George III.
In this Union Jack of 1801 we have, then, plainly displayed a complete representation of the three separate crosses, and of the white and blue grounds of the three national Jacks which were then combined together to form our Union Jack.
Since 1801 no change had been made in this Union Jack of George III., which was the first three-crossed Jack of its race, and is our present Union Jack.
From 1801 onward dates this glorious flag, in which all three nations are represented. It was born when the power of Great Britain seemed almost wrecked. Reverses had accumulated upon her. In America many of her possessions among the West Indies and on the surrounding coasts[135] had been wrested from her flag, and thirteen of her longest established and most populous colonies, becoming the United States, and aided by men, money and fleet from the French in Europe, had revolted from her sway and abandoned their allegiance. In Europe the nations of France, Spain and Holland were united in arms against her, and she was battling almost single-handed against the power of the great Napoleon; yet, undaunted by these trials, the sons of the united nation ran their new Union Jack up aloft, and started out to frame that marvellous career which it has since achieved.