[To THE EDITOR OF THE "sneer...yea."] Sin,—I have in practice
accepted as conclusive Lord Crewe's dictum that " the Union Jack undoubtedly may be flown on land by all His Majesty's subjects." But there is another question, cognate but different, which apparently still remains unsolved—viz., who is the person, or what is the official de- partment, that is charged with adjudication on this matter ? Some personal experience, perhaps worth narrating, leaves this point still in doubt. About three years ago there happened to pass back into my hands, by purchase, an old castle in Scotland after a long interval of possession by others. Certain Jacobite associations of my family with the old place made me strongly desirous, on regaining possession of it, of showing allegiance to the present dynasty, and I sought authoritative guidance as to the flags which I might, or might not, fly on the old building. I knew, of course, that I had no right to fly the Royal Standard, but I was uncertain whether I might hoist a flag, as on Edinburgh Castle, displaying one of its quarterings, the ruddy Lion of Scotland on its yellow shield, as a symbol that the castle was at one time the residence of the Scottish kings. I was in doubt also about the strict propriety of the Union Jack, and also of the pro- priety of hoisting my own family crest beneath it on the same flagstaff. I propounded these questions at the office of the Lord Chamberlain, at the War Office, and at the Heralds College, and, though I received courteous and intelli- gent attention from each of these authorities, I discovered that none of them was much better informed than myself as to the strict legalities or proprieties, and I met with no assumption or pretension to authoritative knowledge or jurisdiction. I felt, and still feel, that I ought not to have
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