It was enough for them that the Union Jack was the flag of Canada; so they followed it to the far north. Here they lived out the balance of their days, and, dying, have been buried in the sacred soil beneath its folds. Certain it is that their descendants will ever prove true to their loyal faith, that no other realm shall possess their bones nor other nation's flag fly above their graves.
Such, then, was the esteem in which Canadians of both races held the two-crossed Union Jack. Before the century of 1800 had commenced, the French-speaking Loyalist of Quebec had laid down his life in its defence; and having, by this loyalty, preserved it to the country, the English-speaking Loyalist here sought a new home in the far-off forests of Canada, so that he and his loved ones might continue to live again beneath its sway.
Truly was this two-crossed Union Jack the flag of Canada and the Canadians, and as truly is its three-crossed successor, our present Union Jack, the native birthright of the sons of its defenders and the successors of those patriot pioneers.
The lineage of the Irish Jack is not so clearly defined as is that of the other Jacks. Although "Paddy" has always been so ready for a shindy that fighting has come to be considered his "natural diversion," he has never found himself particularly at home on the sea. It is on land that he has found play for his fierce delight in mingling where the fray is thickest. It is as a soldier that the Irishman has always excelled. Wellington, Wolseley and Roberts attest his power in command, and in many a forlorn hope the wild energy of the Irish blood in the ranks has scaled the breach and carried the stormers past the anxious moments of the onset, displaying that same "eager, fierce, impetuous valour" with which, in the charge of the Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, the "Inniskillings went into the massive Russian column with a cheer."[74]
It may be that as Ireland was at no time distinguished as a maritime nation, and its local shipping not developed to any great extent, the display of her national Jack had not been so much in evidence among the sailors of the early days as were the Jacks of the two sister nations.
The banner of St. Patrick (28), which is the "Irish Jack," is a white flag, having on it a red cross of the same saltire or diagonal shape as St. Andrew's cross, the heraldic description being, "_Argent, a saltire gules_," red saltire cross on a white ground (Pl. I., fig. 3).