Part 6 (2/2)
”Vert, a sprig of three Leaves of Maple slipped, or, on a chief Argent the Cross of St. George.
”FOR THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC:
”Or, on a Fess Gules between two Fleurs de Lis in chief Azure, and a Sprig of three Leaves of Maple slipped vert in base, a Lion pa.s.sant guardant or.
”FOR THE PROVINCE OF NOVA SCOTIA:
”Or, on a Fess Wavy Azure between three Thistles proper, a Salmon Naiant Argent.
”FOR THE PROVINCE OF NEW BRUNSWICK:
Or, on waves a Lymphad, or Ancient Galley, with oars in action, proper, on a chief Gules a Lion pa.s.sant guardant or, as the same are severally depicted in the margin hereof, to be borne for the said respective Provinces on Seals, s.h.i.+elds, Banners, Flags, or otherwise according to the Laws of Arms.
”And We are further pleased to declare that the said United Provinces of Canada, being one Dominion under the name of {83} Canada, shall, upon all occasions that may be required, use a common Seal, to be called the 'Great Seal of Canada,' which said seal shall be composed of the Arms of the said Four Provinces quarterly, all which armorial bearings are set forth in this Our Royal Warrant.”
This latter point is a somewhat important one, as owing to the semi-official endors.e.m.e.nt given in many colonial publications, it appears to be a popular misconception that as many different arms as possible are to be crowded in. In one example before us five are represented, the additional one being Manitoba. In a handbook on the history, production, and natural resources of Canada, prepared by the Minister of Agriculture for the Colonial Exhibition, held in London in 1886, the arms of the seven provinces are given separately, grouped around a central s.h.i.+eld that includes them all. The whole arrangement is styled ”Arms of the Dominion and of the Provinces of Canada.”
When the Queen's Warrant was issued in 1869, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick were the only members of the Confederation. Manitoba entered it in 1870, British Columbia in 1871, and Prince Edward Island in 1873.
The Royal Canadian Yacht Club, the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, and the Royal Hamilton Yacht Club have the privilege of flying the blue ensign.
Canada, unlike Australia, supplies no contingent towards the Imperial Navy, but she has spent on public works over forty million pounds sterling. By her great trans-continental railway a valuable alternative route to the East is furnished; she provides graving docks at Quebec, Halifax, and Victoria; trains an annual contingent of forty thousand volunteers, supports a military college at Kingston, of whose cadets between eighty and ninety are now officers in the British Army; and in many other ways contributes to the well-being of the Empire, that Greater Britain, which has been not unaptly termed ”a World-Venice, with the sea for streets.”
The badges of the various Colonies of the Empire, as shown in the official flag-book of the Admiralty, are very diverse in appearance; some pleasing and others less charming, perhaps, than fantastic. It is needless to particularise them all. Some, like those of Mauritius, Jamaica, and of Cape Colony (Fig. 127) are heraldic in character, while others--as Barbadoes, where Britannia rides the waves in a chariot drawn by sea-horses, or South Australia, where Britannia lands on a rocky sh.o.r.e on which a black man is seated--are symbolical. Queensland has the simple and pleasing device we see in Fig. 128, the Maltese Cross, having a crown at its centre.
Newfoundland has a crown on a white disc and the {84} Latinised name _Terra Nova_ beneath, and Fiji (Fig. 137) adopts a like simple device, the crown and the word Fiji, while New Guinea does not get even so far as this, but has the crown, and beneath it the letters N. G. The gnu appears as the device of Natal; the black swan (Fig. 141) as the emblem of West Australia.
An elephant and palm-tree on a yellow ground stand for West Africa, and an elephant and temple for Ceylon. British North Borneo (Fig. 132), on a yellow disc has a red lion, and Tasmania (Fig. 133), on a white ground has the same, though it will be noted that the action of the two royal beasts is not quite the same. The Straits Settlements have the curious device seen in Fig. 131. New Zealand (Fig. 136) has a cross of stars on a blue field.
Victoria we have already seen in Figs. 134 and 135, while New South Wales has upon the white field the Cross of St. George, having in the centre one of the lions of England, and on each arm a star--an arrangement shown in Fig. 138. British East Africa has the crown, and beneath it the golden sun shooting forth its rays, one of the simplest, most appropriate, and most pleasing of all the Colonial devices; when placed in the centre of the Governor's flag it is upon a white disc, and the sun has eight princ.i.p.al rays. When for use on the red or blue ensigns, the sun has twelve princ.i.p.al rays, and both golden sun and crown are placed directly upon the field of the flag. St. Helena, Trinidad, Bermuda, British Guiana, Leeward Isles, Labuan, Bahamas, and Hong Kong all have devices in which s.h.i.+ps are a leading feature--in the Bermuda device a.s.sociated with the great floating dock, in the Hong Kong with junks, and in the other cases variously differentiated from each other, so that all are quite distinct in character. In the device of the Leeward Isles, designed by Sir Benjamin Pine, a large pine-apple is growing in the foreground, and three smaller ones away to the right. It is jocularly a.s.sumed that the centre one was Sir Benjamin himself, and the three subordinate ones his family.
With Great Britain the command of the ocean is all-important. By our sea-power our great Empire has been built up, and by it alone can it endure. ”A power to which Rome in the height of her glory is not to be compared--a power which has dotted over the surface of the whole globe her possessions and military posts, whose morning drum-beat, following the sun, and keeping company with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.” So spoke Daniel Webster in 1834, and our ever-growing responsibilities have greatly increased since the more than sixty years when those words were uttered.
Let us in conclusion turn to the ”True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates,”
written by Bacon, a great and patriotic Englishman, where we may read the warning words:-- {85}
”We see the great effects of battles by sea; the Battle of Actium decided the empire of the world; the Battle of Lepanto arrested the greatness of the Turk.
”There be many examples where sea-fights have been final to the war; but this is when princes or States have set up their rest upon the battles; but this much is certain, that he who commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will, whereas those that be strongest by land are many times, nevertheless, in great straits.
”Surely at this day, with us of Europe, the vantage of strength at sea (which is one of the dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain) is great; both because most of the kingdoms of Europe are not merely inland, but girt with the sea most part of their compa.s.s, and because the wealth of both Indies seems, in great part, but an accessory to the command of the seas.”
We are the sons of the men who won us this goodly heritage, and it behoves us in turn to hand it on to our descendants in undiminished dignity, a world-wide domain beneath the glorious Union Flag that binds all in one great brotherhood.
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CHAPTER IV.
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