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 the flag beneath whose folds Nelson and Wellington and countless heroes more were carried to their rest; it waved in triumph on the Heights of Abraham, and its honour was safe with Elliot at Gibraltar; it was unfurled on many a battlefield in the Peninsula, and nerved the arms of those who scaled the heights of the Alma and stood unconquerable in the stubborn fight of Inkerman; and it waved triumphant in the breeze at Sebastopol. The sight of it was strength, comfort, and hope in the dark days of Lucknow and Cawnpore. It floated, a symbol of duty, over the heroes of the burning _Birkenhead_, and to Ross, Parry, Franklin and McClure, in the icy wastes of the far North it was an incentive to renewed {65} effort and a symbol of home. It was the flag of Speke and Livingstone in savage Africa, of Burke and Wills in their explorations in Australia; and for the honour of England that it symbolises men have thought no sacrifice too great. The Queen's Colour is a pledge of loyalty to the Sovereign, an emblem of the unity of all, while the second colour deals with the honour that specially appertains to each regiment--a subject of legitimate pride in the past and an incentive to prove not unworthy in the future of those who gained it such distinction. For some recondite reason the Guards reverse the arrangement that holds in the Line regiments, as with them the Queen's Colour is crimson and bears the regimental devices and honours, while the Union Flag is the Regimental Colour. William IV., in 1832, gave the Grenadier Guards a special flag of crimson silk, bearing in its centre the royal cypher W.R., interlaced in gold, and having grouped together in the four corners the rose, thistle, and shamrock. The Governor-General in India issued in the year 1803 a general order that all the regiments engaged in Wellington's greatest Indian victory--Assaye--should be entitled to the special distinction of a third flag, and the Royal authority confirmed the honour. This flag, borne by the 74th Highlanders, the 78th or Ross-shire Buffs, and other distinguished regiments, was of white silk, having in its centre an elephant, beneath this the regimental number, and around it a wreath. On blue bands above and below were inscribed in gold the words Assaye and Seringapatam. In the year 1830 the general use on parade of these flags was discontinued by order, and they were reserved for very special occasions.