Barlow Cumberland

“ Such, then, is the story, such is the meaning of our Union Jack; the emblem of combined constitutional government, the proclaimer of British liberty, the Union sign of British rule, the signal of the Realm of "Great Britain and Ireland and of all the Britains beyond the seas." [199]
Mindful of its story, happy in their lot, facing the World, its sons and their sons' sons stand up to their Union Colours and encircle the earth with their glad anthem,
"Send him victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the King." ”

“ As the steamer lies at the Queenston Dock, the eye naturally sweeps upward over the cedar clad slopes of the Niagara escarpment toward the striking monument which crowns its heights. The reminiscences are those of martial strife, when on the 13th of October, 1812, contestants met in mortal conflict. In fancy we can see the foemen moving upon the slopes, the American forces gain the Heights, the heroic General Brock leads his men in bold attack to regain possession, and falls at their head mortally wounded. ”

“ It has been my happy lot to be the President of the Sons of England during the record year of Her Majesty’s reign, an epoch year in the history of our British Empire, and it has given me the intensest pleasure to devote whatever power lay within me toward sustaining the loyal sentiments which have been evoked in so remarkable a degree. ”

“ These are the liberties which the Union Jack signals in all parts of the British Empire to all the varied nations, with varied tongues, which have come beneath its sway. It is the consciousness of such liberty and the enjoyment of such equal rights that impelled Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all the colonies of the empire to send their sons to the field of contest in South Africa as a free-will offering to defend their fellow-men and to spread the blessings of Liberty and Freedom to the peoples of that continent. ”

“ It was enough for them that the Union Jack was the flag of Canada; so they followed it to the far north. Here they lived out the balance of their days, and, dying, have been buried in the sacred soil beneath its folds. Certain it is that their descendants will ever prove true to their loyal faith, that no other realm shall possess their bones nor other nation's flag fly above their graves. ”

“ As a reminder of their trip each tourist was given by us a souvenir of Toronto, and even if excursionists struck a rough day and rendered up their tributes to Lake Ontario, it was of novel interest to many who had never before seen a lake wide enough to have been "out of sight of land," and sailing over waves big enough to make a large steamer rock. ”

“ When the Canadian sees the union crosses displayed on his Canadian ensign, or the distant brother colonist on that of his colony, it speaks to each, not only as his own native flag, but yet more as his sign of brotherhood in an empire wider than his own home, broader than the continent on which he lives, for it is the visible evidence of his citizenship in the Empire of Great and Greater Britain. ”

“ When a flag records, by the unmistakable story of its life, how this desired freedom has been not simply alleged, but granted in actual fact to all who have reached the soil of its dominion, and, further, tells how the amplest dream of self-government is realized by those who dwell beneath its sway, then, indeed, is that flag to be cherished with the most passionate devotion, and valued in the most critical estimation. ”

“ On the south side of Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, is the Niagara Portal, where the mouth of the Niagara River, with high banks on either hand, makes its entrance into the lake, forming the only uninterrupted deep water harbour on that shore.
Here the rapid waters, outfall of all the gatherings of the inland Upper Lakes, pour out in fullest volume, enabling entrance even in winter, when all other harbours are closed in the grasp of ice. It is worthy of its mighty source, the product of the greatest Fresh Water Lakes in all the world. ”

“ Those "possessions" which fired the statesman's imagination have marvellously increased; that "power" has expanded beyond his utmost dreams. Since that time no nation, not even his own, has progressed like has the British nation. Canada, then lost to view in a solitude of far-off forests or of pathless plains, has arisen like a young lion, and carrying the Union Jack in continuous line of government from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has gripped the American continent from sea to sea. ”

“ It is, then, easily seen why Canadians and our brother Britons love their Union Jack. It is the signal of parliamentary government by British constitutional principles. It represents progress and modern ideas—the rule of the people, for the people, by the people, through their unbiased King; and, therefore, it is the evidence of their affectionate and loyal allegiance to that monarchy and system of government under whose benign sway the colonies have advanced, and Canada, above all other countries on the continent of America, is the land of the self-governed and the free. ”

“ This faith in the maintenance of the Supremacy of the Seas remains potent to this present day, as is shown by the demand of the British people that their navy shall be maintained at a two-power standard, and so be equal in strength to the navies of any other two of the nations which sail the oceans. It is no new ardour, nor the outcome of any modern development or exigency, but is the outgrowth of the determination of the nation from its earliest days to maintain the supremacy of its flag, and is strengthened by the lessons learned in those centuries. ”

“ Australasia and New Zealand have risen beneath the southern star, India in itself has become an empire, and Africa, youngest born of all the lion's brood, is welding fast another continent beneath the imperial sway.
These are the nations of the Union Jack, the galaxy of parliaments of free men, which have arisen round the centre isles and the throne of Her who, with Her statesmen,
"Knew the seasons when to take Occasion by the hand and make The bounds of freedom wider yet." ”

“ Even the Indian in his forest and on his reserve would marshal forth his picturesque symbols of fidelity in grateful recognition of a Government that never broke a treaty or falsified its plighted word to the Red Man, or failed to evince for the ancient children of the soil a wise and conscientious solicitude." [1]
Of all emblems, a Flag is the one which is universally accepted among men as the incarnation of their intensest sentiment, and when uplifted above them, concentrates in itself the annals of a nation and all the traditions of an empire. ”

“ Thus pure, unsullied in its life-story, this three-crossed Union Jack of Canada is the only flag on the continent of America which has always and ever been the "flag of freedom," a flag under which all men, as their birthright, have been born equal and free. ”

“ As the spirit of that constitution has been adapted to the local circumstances in each, so the red ensign with its Union Jack, which is the embodiment of the power and glory of the British nation, has been emblazoned with the local fervour of each young and growing people, who, ardently loving their new land, yet stand unconquerably in union with the Motherland, and rejoice at seeing their own emblem set upon the mother flag. Each such flag tells us its grand story in a way that a national flag ought to do ”

“ Shall the mothers that bore us bow the head And blush for degenerate sons? Are the patriot fires gone out and dead? Ho! brothers, stand to the guns! Let the flag be nailed to the mast, Defying the coming blast! For Canada's sons are true as steel, Their metal is muscle and bone, The Southerner never shall place his heel On the men of the northern zone. ”

“ Lessons are taught which may be deeply impressed upon the minds of our children, so that by reading the history of their nation in its folds they may endeavour to live lives worthy of the ideals of their [Pg 216] national flag, and frame their own characters and the character of their empire by its lofty teachings.
That it is a beautiful and easily distinguished flag is admitted on all hands, but it has the still further quality, of immeasurable value in a national flag, that its parts and colours tell the history of the nation whose emblem it is. ”

“ In Europe in later times there were few parts of the continent which did not become acquainted with the metal ensigns of the great Roman Empire. The formidable Legions of their armies, issuing from the centre of the realm, carried the Imperial Eagle at their head, and setting it in triumph over many a subjugated state, established its supremacy among the peoples as a sign of the all-conquering power of their mighty Empire. ”

“ The history of the flag, so far as we now have followed it, has been the story of martial or naval prowess and of the extension of its power and command around the world; but there is another story told in its combinations which is even greater in power, and has still deeper meaning in the welfare of the peoples who have come beneath its sway.
The kingdom of England for centuries had its own St. George's Jack, and the kingdom of Scotland its cross of St. Andrew. These red and white crosses had been the accepted symbols of their respective nationalities. ”

“ The Governor-General of Canada, as also the governors in the other self-governed colonies, does not, as so many of the people of the United States imagine, govern the country, acting with absolute power under the direction of the Government of Great Britain; for in every way, except for the purposes of imperial advice and the declaration of war, Canada is practically an Independent Dominion, as sings the empire poet, [167]
"Daughter am I in my mother's home, But mistress in my own." ”

“ The Cape Colony was first acquired, and the West Coast of Africa, New South Wales and Vancouver Island were all added under its display, showing how the mariners of Britain were carrying it far across the distant seas, more distant then than now, for those sea-dogs of the "sceptred isles," boldly raising their new Union Jack upon the mast, braved the unknown oceans, and sailed their ships wherever billows rolled or winds could waft them. ”

“ No wonder the French-speaking Canadian looks upon his British flag with pride, and, as one of his compatriots, Sir Adolphe Chapleau, the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec in 1897, has so well said, "is French in nationality, but British in patriotism"—for beneath the Union Jack he dwells secure in possession of his dearest rights, and under it has victoriously driven the United States invaders back each time they have ventured to attack his loved Canadian soil. ”

“ The fervid eloquence of Daniel Webster, in 1834, described that empire as "a power dotted over the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England." ”

“ The creation of the constitution of England was not confined to a single date, nor was it the product of the men of a single period; its growth has been spread, like that of its flag, over century after century, as each successive phase of the ideal dream has become harmonized with the existing requirements of the day. ”

“ By this proclamation French Canada ceased to be a conquered country, and became a fully established colony of the British King. It was to be governed by a governor and an assembly, entitled to arrange its own taxation, have control of its own internal welfare and local government, and empowered to institute its own courts of law; but to every subject, new or old, of the King, there was reserved the right of appeal to the foot of the throne itself in the Privy Council of Great Britain, should any person think himself aggrieved by the decision of his own locally appointed courts. ”

“ Everywhere throughout the world the maple leaf has won recognition as the emblem of the Canadians, and surely might well be displayed upon their national flag.
If, instead of the Dominion coat-of-arms, a green maple leaf were placed on the shield in the Canadian ensign, the flag would be fairer to see and more easily distinguished. Green is the emblem of youth and vigour, or, if the colour used were scarlet, the colour of courage, then in either case the natural and emblematic attributes of the leaf would be represented. ”

“ The child chortles at a piece of riband waved before him; a boy marches with head erect and martial stride as bearer of the banner at the head of his mimic battalion; the man, at duty's call, rallies to his national standard, and leaving home and all, stakes his life for it in his country's cause; and when the battle of life is closing and steps are homeward bound, the gray-beard, lifting his heart-filled eyes, blesses [Pg 14] the day that brings him back within sight of his native flag. ”

“ To-day we number 8,000,000 (coloured) people in the United States. To-day a desperate effort is being made to blacken the character of the negro and to brand him as a moral monster. In fourteen States of this Union wild mobs have taken the place of the law. They hang, shoot and burn men of my race without law and without right. ”

“ The sea-rovers of Elizabeth had developed into something very like "gentleman-buccaneers." They ranged the oceans, preying upon the Spanish and Portuguese ships wherever they were to be found, and returned in joyousness, bringing home their booty. The maritime eagerness of the people was whetted by these prizes, and it is said that even the Queen herself was not averse to accepting from her good subjects, Drake and Hawkins, a share of the proceeds of their prowess. The reign of the Jack of James I. had scarce begun when a neighbouring maritime rival arose to assume formidable proportions. ”

“ Varieties of it grow, it is true, in other parts of America, but the tree is in its greatest glory in the northern zones, where throughout Canada, extended along her line of similar latitude, it attains to its greatest and most robust development. It flourishes in Newfoundland, in the Maritime Provinces, and in Quebec. It is the finest forest tree in Ontario. Manitoba maples form the foliage of the North-West, and anyone who has seen the giant maple leaves of British Columbia will say the maple leaf is the natural emblem of Canada. ”

“ These stories of martial and constitutional advance are not all the story that this Union Jack tells. There is something more than mere valorous devotion which should be aroused in the expression of loyalty for a flag. Such a devotion might be found even under a despot's sway, for racial and reckless valour may, with some, take the place of thoughtful allegiance.
The story of an ideal flag should declare a supreme idea, an idea which has been so well expressed as being the "divine right of liberty in man. ”

“ Each of the kingdoms had its own separate Parliament, differing, it is true, from that of the other in methods and in many details, but representing the constitutional machinery adopted in each community for consultation between the King and his subjects, who, through their representatives, were advised upon matters connected with the government of their country, whether in its internal laws or in its relations with foreign powers. In course of time the same sovereign, in the person of James I., had by virtue of his birth succeeded to the throne of England, as well as to that of Scotland. ”

“ Such a flag becomes an inspiration not only to [Pg 244] the heart, but to the mind, and men may well be willing to risk their all, and life itself, for the maintenance of its unsullied honour. Such a flag is the Union Jack in Canada.
This three-crossed Jack in Canada is not only the national ensign of the British race, but it is more, for Canadians have made it the real "flag of freedom in America."
It is the proudest ascription of the Union Jack of the Empire that
"Though it may sink o'er a shot-torn wreck, It never flies over a slave." ”