The same deliberate procedure for making an alteration in the Union flag was followed as under Queen Anne: First, an Act of Parliament creating a further union, the call of the Sovereign as the supreme head of the nations, the appointment of a Committee of the Privy Council to consider the drafts of the changes to be made, then an Order in Council, and, finally, the issue of a proclamation by the King.
The record[125] states: "On the 5th November, 1800, the King in Council was pleased to approve the report of a Committee of the Privy Council, that the Union Flag should be altered according to the draft marked 'C,' in which the cross of St. George is conjoined with the crosses of St. Andrew and St. Patrick."
[Illustration: 48. DRAFT "C" OF UNION JACK, 1800.]
This draft "C" (48) was duly transmitted to the College of Arms, London, and an exact tracing of it as recorded in the books of the college has been made.[126]
The designers of this new Union Jack of 1801 had this time to join three flags together, instead of, as in 1707, only joining two; the problem set before them being the union of the three national Jacks of the sister nations into one grand Union Jack (Pl. v., fig. 3).
The three flags now to be formed into one Union flag were the incoming Irish Jack, having a red diagonal saltire cross and white ground, to be joined with the "white crosse, commonly called St. Andrew's crosse,"[127] of Scotland, with its blue ground, and the "Jack white with a red cross, commonly called St. George's cross"[128] of England, with its white ground.
[127] Proclamation, Charles I., 1634, p. 83.
[128] Proclamation, Charles II., 1663, p. 90.
The latter two had already been joined in the Union Jack of 1707. The draft "C" (48) gives the method in which the designers proposed the three flags should be combined, and the proportions to be given to each in the new flag, which then received the approval of the King in Council.
Thereafter, on January 1st, 1801, King George III. issued his Royal proclamation from St. James' Palace, declaring His Majesty's pleasure concerning the Royal style and titles appertaining to the Imperial crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and its dependencies, and also the ensigns armorial, flags and banners thereof.