French flag

“ To the true patriot of every country the national flag must be a subject of pride. If, as a French writer observes, it does not always lead him to victory, it inspires him to fight well, and if need be to die well. "We pay to it," says the same writer, "royal honours. When it is paraded—in rags it may be, and with faded colours, bearing in letters of gold the names of victories—the troops present arms, the officers salute it with the sword, and the white heads of veteran generals are uncovered and bent before the ensign." To the soldier its loss is one of the greatest calamities. ”

“ Previous to the Revolution the French can hardly be said to have had a national flag. The colours of the reigning families—changing as they did with each fresh dynasty, as was the case in our own early history—were accepted in the place of national standards, while each regiment in the army followed colours of its own. The celebrated Chape de Saint Martin de Tours and the Oriflamme of the Abbey of Saint Denis, were, like the labarum of Constantine, ecclesiastical banners, symbolic of the two patrons of Christian France watching over her in her battles. ”

“ Fords, Howard & Hulbert, Publishers, New York.
When a man of thoughtful mind sees a nation's flag, he sees not the flag only, but the nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, he reads chiefly in the flag the government, the principles, the truth, the history, which belong to the nation which sets it forth. When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the newfound Italian flag is unfurled, we see Italy restored. ”

“ The staff on which the flag is fastened is seven feet long, with a gilt ball, crescent, and tassels at the top. The flag is made of three stripes, one of light yellow, and two of light red, with a black oval, with red trimmings, in the centre. The flag should be unfolded so as to show the design, but gathered in at the centre by the hand of the soldier. Between these two figures are a French soldier and an Arab lying dead on the ground. ”

“ French.—To come to flags of other countries, nowhere have historical events caused so much change in the standards and national ensigns of a country as in the case of France. The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour. The tricolour was introduced at the time of the Revolution, but the origin of this flag and its colours is a disputed question. ”

“ A like ambiguity would have arisen in the French navy, where from 1661 until the Revolution the ensign was plain white, and it may be noted that in 1794 during the attack on Martinique the French fired on a flag of truce sent by the English, and explained their action later as being due to a mistaken supposition that it was intended for the colours of their late rulers the Bourbons; whereupon it was agreed that in future ships bearing flags of truce should have the enemy's flag at the bow and their own national colours at the stern. ”

“ In this "standard," which was really only a modification of the "union" flag, the English lions were replaced by the St George's cross, the Scottish and French arms disappeared, and only those of Ireland remained. This upstart [80] flag soon acquired an honour in battle that had been sadly lacking to the old one since 1588, for it waved over the heroic fights of the First Dutch War and the action at Santa Cruz. ”

“ I say that the British flag is an assurance to all distressed persons that what can be done for them will be done for them, and foreigners know this well, and would sooner sight it when they are in peril than their own colours, be those colours Dutch, or French, or Spanish, or Danish, or Italian, or Russian. ”

“ Red and blue in the national flag are so tempered with pure white as to subdue their fierce antagonism. And so it may be with other examples—there must be either some overpowering sentiment or some skilful expedient, like breaking the main colors into lower60 tints, to ease the transit from one to the other. A good piece of color work need not be composed of different colors. It may be composed of different shades of the same color, or of tints very nearly related. ”

“ From clanking spur to epaulette with stars and golden lines;
He knows how potent is the spell such ornaments impart
To make of soldiers demi-gods in woman's gentle heart.
"The Flag! The Flag!" The crowd is thrilled to see it now advance!
Hail, Colors of the Fatherland! Hail, Banner of Fair France!
Hail, wounded emblem of the brave; blood-red, and heaven's blue,
And purest white,—the noble Flag, now waving in our view!
Standard sublime, that moves all hearts, as now thy form unrolls,
Our dead seem shrouded in thy folds, stirred by the breath of souls! ”

“ I have before me "The Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Army," issued by the Commander-in-chief, in which flags which can be flown only on shore are confounded with flags which can be flown nowhere but on board ship. Yet the subject is really an interesting one, and, connected as it is with national history, it is deserving of a little study.
Flags are of many kinds, and they are put to many uses. They are the representatives of nations; they [pg 13] distinguish armies and fleets, and to insult a flag is to insult the nation whose ensign it is. ”

“ If I succeed in winning over a regiment, if the soldiers to whom I am unknown are roused by the sight of the imperial eagle, then all the chances will be mine. My cause will be morally gained, even if secondary obstacles rise to prevent its success. It is my aim to present a popular flag—the most popular, the most glorious of all,—which shall serve as a rallying-point for the generous and the patriotic of all parties; to restore to France her dignity without universal war, her liberty without license, her stability without despotism. ”

“ The distinguishing badge of the colour-sergeant consists of crossed colours, embroidered on the sleeve above the chevrons of his rank.
It has taken something like a thousand years of time to build up the British Empire, while the lavish outlay of toil and forethought of statesmen, the ceaseless spending of blood and treasure, the brilliant strategy by land and sea of a long line of distinguished commanders have all contributed to its birth and proud maintenance; and of all this devotion in the past and the determination to uphold it in the future, the flag is the living concrete symbol. ”

“ It is a practical exhibition in itself of the result of concerted action, and has been from its origin until to-day worshipped as no other ensign designed by man has ever been. It is loved and respected by all who love liberty. It represents the government. It represents our honor. To love it is to love one’s country, a duty more sacred than any other, except love and respect for God.
“Oh, glorious flag! red, white and blue,
Bright emblem of the pure and true!
Oh, glorious group of clustering stars,
Ye lines of light, ye crimson bars.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ We saw many sad faces and heard many sad stories from the brave daughters of France, mothers of heroes then contending with the German hordes. But their faces brightened at the sight of our flag. They recognized it as the emblem of freedom, and those who bore it as faithful allies and friends. Matrons, young women, girls, and children thronged around us at every halting place. Some offered us food, others wreaths and bouquets, and all greeted us with glad smiles and cheers of welcome. ”

“ 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. ”

“ That vignette, after renewing from month to month before our readers, for nearly four years, as gracious and fragrant a memory as can engage the love of a New-England heart, gave place, in the month of June, 1861, to the only emblem, no longer personal, which might claim to supplant it. The national flag, during a struggle which has seen its dignity insulted only to rouse and nerve the spirit which shall vindicate its glory, has displaced that bearded and ruffed portraiture. ”

“ In our great wars in which the navy of Great Britain played so prominent a part, we became so accustomed to see the flag of the enemy bent on under our own ensign, that if an exceptional case occurred where the position of the two flags was reversed, it went home to the heart of every loyal subject with a pang which the loss of many ships by storm and tempest would not have produced.
Yet how few of us know what the national colours are, what the Union is, what the Royal Standard is. ”

“ A splendid cut of the above flag is in Vol. XIV of the Archives of Pennsylvania. Others had upon them a rattlesnake broken into thirteen pieces with the mottoes of “Unite or die,” or “Join or die.” These devices were first used to stimulate the Colonies into concerted action against the French and Indians, and afterwards were revived to unite them in the Revolutionary struggle. In Bradford’s Pennsylvania Journal of December 27, 1775, there appeared the following article, which is very interesting and logical:
“Messrs. ”

“ Above everything else he was an American through and through. He was proud of his country, of its traditions, of its history, of its glorious flag. For that flag he had risked his life again and again. He loved it with a consuming passion. Old Glory! The tears came to his eyes as he thought of it. The flag that had always stood for human freedom and human rights, the flag that had never covered an ignoble cause, the flag that had never been sullied by stain, had never been smirched by defeat, had never been dragged in the dust. ”

“ As at early dawn the stars stand first, and then it grows light, and then as the sun advances, that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and intense white striving together and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so on the American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light shine out together. And wherever the flag comes, and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry no rampant lion and fierce eagle, but only light, and every fold significant of liberty. ”

“ There is the national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. If he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.
It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen States to maintain the Declaration of Independence. ”

“ Our fiery patriotism seems quite content to let our decorative crowns and gilded emblems and wreaths be “made in Germany,” and the popular imagination is sufficiently lifted by union jacks,193 supplied in “all sizes” down to the pocket-handkerchief by the dauntless commercial instinct aforesaid.
Nothing, of course, gives colour and movement so readily as bunting, and the very sight of a flag is exciting. But flags are dangerous things, and private zeal in the display of flags often outruns heraldic discretion. One sees strange treatment of the national emblem sometimes. ”

“ There is an odd thing about that flag, when you meet it on the high seas and the wind is blowing hard—namely, that of all flags I know it is the most alive, when the wind blows, the most eager and keen, with the stripes flowing and darting like snakes, and the stars seeming to dance with the joy of excitement. ”

“ There is, however, one aspect which may receive an illustration here. Among the privileges and duties of which a British flag has for so many centuries been an outward emblem, not the least in value has been that of freedom. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The first real military flags of which we have definite records were those used in the Civil Wars. The cavalry possessed standards revealing all manner of decorative symbols with mottoes telling of their leader’s faith in God, their hatred for the enemy, and the trust which they placed in Providence. The infantry forces bore colours devised with more regularity of purpose. Each colonel flew a plain white, red or other coloured flag; lieutenant-colonels were known by a flag bearing a small 7St. George’s Cross in the upper left-hand canton ”