[47] The United States national ensign has at the different dates been composed as follows:
1776--The Union Jack of Queen Anne and thirteen stripes.
1777--Thirteen stars and thirteen stripes.
1818--Fifteen stars and thirteen stripes.
Thereafter an additional star was added as each new State was created out of the western territories, the stripes for the original thirteen colonies remaining the same.
1896--Forty-five stars and thirteen stripes.
1909--Forty-six stars and thirteen stripes.
In each of these instances the artist was painting from his imagination, but Vandervelt, who painted the picture from which our illustration of the _Naseby_ is taken, was himself present on the occasion he recorded, and, seeing that he was the most celebrated marine artist of his day, the details of the flags can be taken to be correct.
The subsequent proclamation of Charles II., in 1663 (page 89), shows that this flag not only continued to be used on the royal ships, but that also all the merchant ships had adopted it and were flying the "Ensign Red" at the stern in the same way as on the _Naseby_, and thus it was that this flag, having become established by usage as the national ensign, was then confirmed in its position by the proclamation of the King.
[Illustration: 21. MEDAL OF CHARLES II., 1665.]
Further confirmation of its use is given by the medals issued in 1665 by Charles II., which he granted to his followers in recognition of service. One of these is given in fig. 21. On the reverse is a ship in full sail. On the flag at the mainmast head are the letters "C.R.," being the abbreviation of CAROLUS REX, and intended to indicate that the flag was the Royal Standard; at the bow the two-crossed Jack, and at the stern the Red Ensign with the St. George Jack in the upper corner.
The place of distinction at the stern had been occupied, as under Charles I., by the Royal Standard of the reigning kings. To this position the Commonwealth ensign had been installed as being the ensign of the State, and then by the unpremeditated transition at the "Restoration" the Red Ensign succeeded to the post of honour as the ensign of the nation.
The story of this flag again exemplifies its harmony with the peculiar genius of the British constitution, for it attained to its position, not by a single verbal enactment, but by force of unwritten usage, and its gradual acceptance by the will of the people, after which it was confirmed by the Act of the sovereign.