In a book in the library of the Science and Art Department, South Kensington, we found the flag represented in Fig. 185 figured as the French Standard, with Fig. 187 apparently as an alternative, while the National flag of France is represented as the tricolor with bordering shown in Fig. 189, and the Admiral's flag is given as pure white. The book is entitled "A Display of Naval Flags of all Nations." It was published in Liverpool; no date is given, but we can arrive approximately at this, as the British Standard is represented as including the arms of Hanover; this limits its publication to between the years 1714 and 1837. The well-known tricolor of France, Fig. 191, dates from the era of the Revolution and came into existence in 1789. It has, with the exception of the short Bourbon Restoration, been the flag of France for over a century, and it remains so to this day, though it underwent some few modifications ere it settled down to the present form. Thus, for instance, on October 24th 1790, it was decreed that the colour next the staff was to be red, the central strip white and the outer blue, but on February 15th, 1794, it was ordered that "the flag prescribed by the National Assembly be abolished. The national flag shall be formed of the three national colours in equal bands placed vertically, the hoist being blue, the centre white, and the fly red." On the Revolution of 1848, the provisional government ordered on March 5th that the colours were to run thus--blue, red, white, but the opposition to this was so strong that only two days later the order was cancelled. In 1790 the tricolor was made the Jack, and the ensign was as shown in Fig. 190. This ensign was to be common to both the men-of-war and the flags of the merchant navy, but the arrangement was not of long continuance. The spirit of change that was felt in every department affected the flags {109} likewise, and some little time elapsed before the matter was satisfactorily settled. The arms of Paris are a white galley on a red ground, and above this are three golden fleurs-de-lys on a blue band or strip. On July 14th, 1789, it was determined that a civic guard of forty thousand men should be raised, and that its colours should be those of the city, the gules and azure of the groundwork of the escutcheon, to which, on the proposal of Lafayette, the white of the royal _drapeau blanc_ was added. During the first and second Empire the Imperial Standard was still the tricolor, but it bore in the centre of the white strip the eagle; and all three strips were richly diapered over with the golden bees of the Napoleons. The national flag was the tricolor pure and simple, both for the Imperial and the Commercial Navy. As the flags of the army were borne on staffs surmounted by a golden eagle, the term "eagle" was often applied to these colours.[71]