On the continent of America the impetuous Brock, facing enormous odds, and leading his Canadian volunteers in defence of their native land, gave up his life for it on the cedar-clad slopes of Queenston Heights, and beneath it the French Canadians of Beauharnois knelt on the battlefield, and rising, won, with the brave De Salaberry as their leader, the victory of glorious Chateauguay.[138]
It was carried far to the Arctic north by Sir John Franklin, in 1846, and in October, 1908, Shackleton planted this ancient Union Jack, with all its crosses and broad white border,[139] upon the farthest Antarctic south (52).
Such a flag with such a history should be held sacred and inviolable.
[CHAPTER XX.]
THE LESSONS OF THE CROSSES.
The combinations of the Jacks have at length been completed, and the three crosses placed together in the one flag of 1801.
If some of the heralds are not entirely satisfied with the way the divisions are made, due honour has at least been done to each of the Jacks of the three kingdoms, while at the same time the historical value of the "Union" has been greatly enhanced, and its beauty as a flag most certainly increased. If the object of heraldry is the teaching of lessons by the combinations of colour and of forms, then the flag as made is yet more heraldically successful.
In the heraldic and traditional interpretations of colours, red indicates courage, white is the emblem of purity, and blue the emblem of truth.