This Union Flag is not very often met with. It occurrs on one of the great seals of Charles II., and is seen also as a Jack on the {47} bowsprits of ships in paintings of early naval battles. It may, by good fortune, be seen also on the two colours of the 82nd regiment that in the year 1783 were suspended in St. Giles', Edinburgh, and a very good illustration of it may be seen in the National Gallery, where, in a battle scene by Copley, representing the death of Major Peirson, at St. Helier, Jersey, on January 6th, 1781, this Union flag is conspicuous in the centre of the picture. We have it again in Fig 57, the original flag of the East India Company; the difference between this and the second Union Flag, made on the admission of Ireland's Cross of St. Patrick, may be very well seen on a comparison of Figs. 57 and 61. We have it again in Figs. 142 and 143, flags of the revolting American Colonists before they had thrown off all allegiance to the Old Country. A knowledge of the history of the flag has not only interest, but is of some little importance. We remember seeing a picture of the sailing of the _Mayflower_, in which, by a curious lack of a little technical knowledge, the flag depicted was the Union Flag of to-day, which did not come into existence until the first year of the present century, whereas the historic event represented in the picture took place in the year 1620. In a fresco in the House of Lords, representing Charles II. landing in England,[34] the artist has introduced a boat bearing the present Union Flag. In each of these cases it is evident that it should have been the first Union--that of England and Scotland--that the flag should have testified to. Charles I. issued a proclamation on May 5th, 1634, forbidding any but the Royal ships to carry the Union flag; all merchantmen, according to their nationality, being required to show either the Cross of St. George or that of St. Andrew. Queen Anne, on July 28th, 1707, required that merchant vessels should fly a red flag "with a Union Jack described in a canton at the upper corner thereof, next the staff," while the Union Flag, as before, was reserved for the Royal Navy. This merchant flag, if we cut out the inscription there shown, would be similar to Fig. 142. This is interesting, because, after many changes, so lately as October 18th, 1864, it was ordered that the red ensign once again should be the distinguishing flag of the commercial marine; the present flag is given in Fig. 97. It is further interesting because this proclamation of Queen Anne's is the first time that the term Union Jack, so far as we are aware, is officially used.