The Declaration of Paris in 1856 adopted with the Treaty of Paris to establish four principles of international law:
- 1) Privateering to be abolished;
- 2) the neutral flag might cover enemy goods except contraband of war;
- 3) neutral goods, except contraband of war, not to be subject to capture under an enemy's flag;
- 4) blockades, to be binding, must be effective, i.e. maintained by a sufficient force.
The treaty was accepted by nearly all civilized nations, except the United States. The United States refused to agree to the abolition of privateering, and this cost them heavily in the American Civil War.
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An ensign is a flag or banner used in the Army and Navy. The British naval ensign is red, white or blue, with a small Union Jack in the upper corner. The red ensign is flown by the Merchant fleet, the blue by the Royal Navy Reserve and the white, which includes a red St George's cross by the Royal Navy.
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Fanikin was a 16th century term for a small flag or banner.
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In its most popular usage, a flag is a piece of bunting, usually but not always, square or rectangular in shape, attached to a pole and used as a standard, ensign or signal for display or decoration, and to distinguish one company, party, or nationality from another. Formerly in Britain, a black flag was raised outside prisons to announce the execution of a prisoner. Traditionally in Britain, when in mourning flags are lowered to halfway down the pole and 'flown at half mast'.
In the army a flag is a banner by which one regiment is distinguished from another. Flags borne on the masts of vessels not only designate the country to which they belong, but also are made to denote the quality of the officer by whom a ship is commanded. Thus in the British navy an admiral's flag was displayed at the maintop-gallant-mast-head, a vice-admiral's at the foretop-gallant-mast-head, and a rear-admiral's at the mizzen-top-gallant-mast-head.
In the navy the supreme flag of Great Britain is the royal standard, which is only to be hoisted when the sovereign or one of the royal family is on board the vessel. All British ships of war in commission carry the white ensign, that is a white flag divided into four quarters by the red cross of St George and having the union flag (or union 'jack' as it is popularly called) in the upper corner next the staff.
British merchant ships are entitled to carry a red flag with the union in the corner. The union is the flag commonly used on shore as the national ensign. To lower or strike the flag is to pull it down, or take it in, out of respect or submission to superiors. To lower or strike the flag in an engagement is a sign of yielding. A sign of mourning is to hoist the flags at a half or two-thirds of the height of the masts, if on land at half the height of the staff. Besides the use of flags as distinguishing emblems, a very important use of them at sea, both by national and mercantile navies, is as signals according to an arranged code.
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The Flag of the Prophet or the Sanjak-sherif is the sacred flag of the Muslims. It was originally composed of the turbans of the Koreish captured by Mohammed; but the black curtain that hung in front of the door of Ayesha, one of Mohammed's wives, was afterwards substituted. It is preserved in the seraglio at Istanbul. The carefully-guarded banner unfolded at the commencement of a war is not the real sacred flag, though it is commonly believed to be so.
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The Revenue Flag was an American flag instituted by an act of Congress, on March the 2nd, 1799, to consist of 'sixteen perpendicular stripes, alternate red and white, the Union of the ensign bearing the arms of the United States in dark blue on a white field'.
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The Royal Standard is a flag bearing the royal national arms, flown only by the Sovereign.
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The Stars and Bars was the flag of the American Confederacy. On March the 5th, 1861, the Flag Committee appointed in the Provisional Senate of the Southern States recommended that 'the flag of the Confederate States shall consist of a red field with a white space extending horizontally through the centre, and equal in width to one-third the width of the flag'. It was first displayed on March the 4th, 1861, simultaneously with the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, being unfurled over the State House at Montgomery, Alabama. In 1863 the Confederate Senate adopted a white flag with one blue star in the centre, the Stars and Bars bearing too close a resemblance to the Stars and Stripes. Johnston and Beauregard also adopted a battle flag, consisting of a red ground with a blue diagonal cross and white stars.
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The Stars and Stripes (also 'Old Glory') is a popular name for the flag of the USA. The original flag was based upon the Grand Union Flag which had thirteen stripes of red and white representing the colonies and the British flag in the top left corner. Following American independence, the British flag was removed and replaced with a blue canton containing thirteen stars, twelve in a circle surrounding one in the centre which represented the thirteen states seceding from the British crown. In 1795, after two more states joined the Union the flag was altered to comprise fifteen stars and fifteen stripes and was known as the 'Star Spangled Banner'. The arrangement of the stars was later changed to form diagonal lines, and in 1817 Congress decreed that the flag should revert to the original thirteen stripes, but that new stars should be added as the union grew, and in 1818 the stars were grouped to form a large star of five points. In 1819 the stars were moved to a perpendicular arrangement. After 1960 when Hawaii joined the union the flag comprised fifty stars.
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