More wish'd for and more welcome is than sleep,
They dreaded to behold, lest the sun's light
With English streamers should salute their sight."[[37]]
It was not until the year 1651 that Scotland was brought under the sway of the Commonwealth, and the ordinance for its full union with England and Ireland was not promulgated until April 12th, 1654. Somewhat later an Order of Council recognised the new necessities of the case, and decreed that the Standard for the Protectorate be as shown in Fig. [83]. England and Scotland are here represented by their respective crosses, while Ireland, instead of having the Cross of St. Patrick, is represented by the harp. In Fig. [80] all three crosses are introduced, but there seems somewhat too much white in this latter flag for an altogether successful effect, and the blue of the Irish quarter, balancing the blue of the Scottish, is more pleasing. The Union Flag underwent yet another modification, and instead of being like Figs. [82] or [86], the Union Flag of James I., Fig. [73], was reverted to, and in the centre of the flag was placed a golden harp—"the Armes of England and Scotland united, according to the anncient form, with the addicion of the harpe." On the restoration of Charles II. this harp was removed, and Ireland does not appear again in the Union Flag, Fig. [73], until January 1st, 1801.
A pattern farthing of this period—preserved in the magnificent numismatic collection in the British Museum—shows on its reverse a three-masted ship: at the stern is a large flag divided vertically, like Fig. [86], into two compartments, the Cross of St. George in one and the harp in the other; the main and mizen masts are shown with flags containing St. George's Cross only, as in Fig. [91], while the foremast bears a flag with St. Andrew's Cross upon it, a flag similar to Fig. [92].
For nearly fifty years before its rise, and for nearly one hundred and fifty years after the downfall of the Protectorate, that is to say from 1602 to 1649 and from 1659 to 1801, the Union Flag was as shown in Fig. [73], but in 1801 the Legislative Union of Ireland with Great Britain was effected, and a new Union Flag, the one now in
use, was devised. This may be seen in Fig. [90], the noblest flag that flies under heaven.
Though the National Flag is primarily just so much silk or bunting, its design and colouring are full of meaning: and though its prime cost may be but a few shillings, its value is priceless, for the national honour is enwrapped in its folds, and the history of centuries is figured in the symbolism of its devices. It represents to us all that patriotism means. It is the flag of freedom and of the greatest empire that the world has ever known. Over three hundred millions of people—in quiet English shires, amid Canadian snows, on the torrid plains of Hindustan, amidst the busy energy of the great Australian group of colonies, or the tropical luxuriance of our West Indian possessions—are to-day enjoying liberty and peace beneath its shelter. Countless thousands have freely given their lives to preserve its blazonry unstained from dishonour and defeat, and it rests with us now to keep the glorious record as unsullied as of old; never to unfurl our Union Flag in needless strife, but, when once given to the breeze, to emulate the deeds of our forefathers, and to inscribe on its folds fresh records of duty nobly done.
How the form known as St. Patrick's Cross, Fig. [93], became associated with that worthy is not by any means clear. It is not found amongst the emblems of Saints, and its use is in defiance of all ecclesiastical tradition and custom, as St. Patrick never in the martyrological sense had a cross at all, for though he endured much persecution he was not actually called upon to lay down his life for the Faith. It has been suggested, and with much appearance of probability, that the X-like form of cross, both of the Irish and of the Scotch, is derived from the sacred monogram on the Labarum of Constantine, where the X is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ. This symbolic meaning of the form might readily be adopted in the early Irish Church, and thence be carried by missionaries to Scotland.
A life of St. Patrick was written by Probus, who lived in the seventh century, and another by Jocelin, a Cistercian monk of the twelfth century, and this latter quotes freely from four other lives of the Saint that were written by his disciples.