Beyond the question, whether the system of recruiting, which has been employed during the present war, can correctly be described as 'voluntary,' there is the further question, whether the system, which is in use at ordinary times, and which produces some 35,000 men per annum, can be so described. Lord Roberts always maintained that it could not, and that its true title was 'the Conscription of Hunger.'
{383}
NORMAL RECRUITING METHODS
Any one who has watched the recruiting-sergeant3 at work, on a raw cold day of winter or early spring, will be inclined to agree with Lord Roberts. A fine, good-humoured, well-fed, well-set-up fellow, in a handsome uniform, with rows of medals which light up the mean and dingy4 street, lays himself alongside some half-starved poor devil, down in his luck, with not a rag to his back that the north wind doesn't blow through. The appetites and vanities of the latter are all of them morbidly5 alert—hunger, thirst, the desire for warmth, and to cut a smart figure in the world. The astute6 sergeant, though no professor of psychology7, understands the case thoroughly8, as he marks down his man. He greets him heartily9 with a 'good day' that sends a glow through him, even before the drink at the Goat and Compasses, or Green Dragon has been tossed off, and the King's shilling accepted.
Not that there is any need for pity or regret. These young men with empty bellies10, and no very obvious way of filling them, except by violence—these lads with gloom at their hearts, in many cases with a burden of shame weighing on them at having come into such a forlorn pass—in nine cases out of ten enlistment11 saves them; perhaps in more even than that.
But talk about compulsion and the voluntary principle! What strikes the observer most about such a scene as this is certainly not anything which can be truly termed 'voluntary.' If one chooses to put things into ugly words—which is sometimes useful, in order to give a shock to good people who are tending towards self-righteousness in their worship of phrases—this is the compulsion of hunger and {384} misery12. It might even be contended that it was not only compulsion, but a mean, sniggling kind of compulsion, taking advantage of a starving man.
The law is very chary13 of enforcing promises made under duress14. If a man dying of thirst signs his birthright away, or binds15 himself in service for a term of years, in exchange for a glass of water, the ink and paper have no validity. But the recruit is firmly bound. He has made a contract to give his labour, and to risk his life for a long period of years, at a wage which is certainly below the market rate; and he is held to it. Things much more 'voluntary' than this have been dubbed16 'slavery,' and denounced as 'tainted17 with servile conditions.' And the loudest denunciators have been precisely18 those anti-militarists, who uphold our 'voluntary' system with the hottest fervour, while reprobating 'compulsion' with the utmost horror.
MORAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS
We have heard much caustic19 abuse of the National Service League. It has been accused of talking 'the cant20 of compulsion'; by which has been meant that certain of its members have put in the forefront of their argument the moral and physical advantages which they imagine universal military training would confer upon the nation. Some may possibly have gone too far, and lost sight of the need of the nation, in their enthusiasm for the improvement of the individual. But if occasionally their arguments assume the form of cant, can their lapse21 be compared with the cant which tells the world smugly that the British Army is recruited on the voluntary principle?
The 'economic argument,' as it is called, is another example. The country would be faced with {385} ruin, we are told, if every able-bodied man had to give 'two of the best years of his life,'[1] and a week or two out of each of the ensuing seven, to 'unproductive' labour. Sums have been worked out the to hundreds of millions sterling23, with the object of showing that the national loss, during a single generation, would make the national debt appear insignificant24. How could Britain maintain her industrial pre-eminence weighted with such a handicap?
One answer is that Britain, buoyed25 up though she has been by her voluntary system, has not lately been outstripping26 those of her competitors who carried this very handicap which it is now proposed that she should carry; that she has not even been maintaining her relative position in the industrial world in comparison, for example, with Germany.
But there is also another answer. If you take a youth at the plastic age when he has reached manhood, feed him on wholesome27 food, subject him to vigorous and varied28 exercise, mainly in the open air, discipline him, train him to co-operation with his fellows, make him smart and swift in falling-to at whatever work comes under his hand, you are thereby29 giving him precisely what, for his own sake and that of the country, is most needed at the present time. You are giving him the chance of developing his bodily strength under healthy conditions, and you are giving him a general education and moral training which, in the great majority of cases, will be of great value to him in all his after life.
It is the regret of every one, who has studied our industrial system from within, that men wear out too {386} soon. By the time a man reaches his fortieth year—often earlier—he is too apt, in many vocations30, to be an old man; and for that reason he is in danger of being shoved out of his place by a younger generation.
This premature31 and, for the most part, unnecessary ageing is the real economic loss. If by taking two years out of a man's life as he enters manhood, if by improving his physique and helping32 him to form healthy habits, you can thereby add on ten or fifteen years to his industrial efficiency, you are not only contributing to his own happiness, but are also adding enormously to the wealth and prosperity of the country. Any one indeed, who chooses to work out sums upon this hypothesis, will hardly regard the national debt as a large enough unit for comparison. The kernel33 of this matter is, that men wear out in the working classes earlier than in others, mainly because they have no break, no rest, no change, from the day they leave school to take up a trade, till the day when they have to hand in their checks for good and all. It is not effort, but drudgery34, which most quickly ages a man. It is the rut—straight, dark, narrow, with no horizons, and no general view of the outside world—which is the greatest of social dangers. More than anything else it tends to narrowness of sympathy and bitterness of heart.
UNDER-RATING OF CONSCRIPT ARMIES
It would be cant to claim that universal military training will get rid of this secular35 evil; but to say that it will help to diminish it is merely the truth. The real 'cant' is to talk about the economic loss under conscription; for there would undoubtedly36 be an immense economic gain.
But indeed the advocacy of the voluntary system {387} is stuffed full of cant.... We are all proud of our army; and rightly so. But the opponents of universal military service go much further in this direction than the soldiers themselves. They contrast our army, to its enormous advantage, with the conscript armies of the continent, which they regard as consisting of vastly inferior fighting men—of men, in a sense despicable, inasmuch as their meek37 spirits have submitted tamely to conscription.
Colonel Seely, who, when he touches arithmetic soars at once into the region of poetry, has pronounced confidently that one of our voluntary soldiers is worth ten men whom the law compels to serve. Sir John Simon was still of opinion—even after several months of war—that one of our volunteers was worth at least three conscripts; and he was convinced that the Kaiser himself already knew it. What a splendid thing if Colonel Seely were right, or even if Sir John Simon were right!
But is either of them right? So far as our voluntary army is superior—and it was undoubtedly superior in certain respects at the beginning of the war—it was surely not because it was a 'voluntary' army; but because, on the average, it had undergone a longer and more thorough course of training than the troops against which it was called upon to fight. Fine as its spirit was, and high as were both its courage and its intelligence, who has ever heard a single soldier maintain that—measured through and through—it was in those respects superior to the troops alongside which, or against which it fought?
As the war has continued month after month, and men with only a few months' training have been {388} drafted across the Channel to supply the British wastage of war, even this initial superiority which came of longer and more thorough training has gradually been worn away. A time will come, no doubt—possibly it has already come—when Germany, having used up her trained soldiers of sound physique, has to fall back upon an inferior quality. But that is merely exhaustion38. It does not prove the superiority of the voluntary system. It does not affect the comparison between men of equal stamina39 and spirit—one set of whom has been trained beforehand in arms—the other not put into training until war began.
Possibly Colonel Seely spoke40 somewhat lightly and thoughtlessly in those serene41 days before the war-cloud burst; but Sir John Simon spoke deliberately—his was the voice of the Cabinet, after months of grim warfare42. To describe his utterances43 as cant does not seem unjust, though possibly it is inadequate44. We are proud of our army, not merely because of its fine qualities, but for the very fact that it is what we choose to call a 'voluntary' army. But what do they say of it in foreign countries? What did the whole of Europe say of it during the South African War? What are the Germans saying of it now?
Naturally prejudice has led them to view the facts at a different angle. They have seldom referred to the 'voluntary' character of our army. That was not the aspect which attracted their attention, so much as the other aspect, that our soldiers received pay, and therefore, according to German notions, 'fought for hire.' At the time of the South African War all continental45 nations said of our army what {389} the Germans still say—not that it was a 'voluntary' army, but that it was a 'mercenary' army; and this is a much less pleasant-sounding term.[2]
THE CANT OF MILITARISM
In this accusation46 we find the other kind of cant—the cant of militarism. For if ours is a mercenary army, so is their own, in so far as the officers and non-commissioned officers are concerned. But as a matter of fact no part, either of our army or the existing German army, can with any truth be described as 'mercenaries'; for this is a term applicable only to armies—much more common in the past in Germany than anywhere else—who were hired out to fight abroad in quarrels which were not their own.
But although this German accusation against the character of our troops is pure cant, it would not be wholly so were it levelled against the British people. Not our army, but we ourselves, are the true mercenaries; because we pay others to do for us what other nations do for themselves. In German eyes—and perhaps in other eyes as well, which are less willing to see our faults—this charge against the British people appears maintainable. It is incomprehensible to other nations, why we should refuse to recognise that it is any part of our duty, as a people, to defend our country; why we will not admit the obligation either to train ourselves to arms in time of peace, or to risk our lives in time of war; why we hold obstinately47 to it that such things are no part of {390} our duty as a people, but are only the duty of private individuals who love fighting, or who are endowed with more than the average sense of duty.
"As for you, the great British People," writes Hexenküchen contemptuously, "you merely fold your hands, and say self-righteously, that your duty begins and ends with paying certain individuals to fight for you—individuals whose personal interest can be tempted49 with rewards; whose weakness of character can be influenced by taunts51, and jeers52, and threats of dismissal; or who happen to see their duty in a different light from the great majority which calls itself (and is par22 excellence) the British People...." This may be a very prejudiced view of the matter, but it is the German view. What they really mean when they say that England is to be despised because she relies upon a mercenary army, is that England is to be despised because, being mercenary, she relies upon a professional army. The taunt50, when we come to analyse it, is found to be levelled, not against the hired, but against the hirers; and although we may be very indignant, it is not easy to disprove its justice.
The British nation, if not actually the richest, is at any rate one of the richest in the world. It has elected to depend for its safety upon an army which cannot with justice be called either 'voluntary' or 'mercenary,' but which it is fairly near the truth to describe as 'professional.' The theory of our arrangement is that we must somehow, and at the cheapest rate, contrive53 to tempt48 enough men to become professional soldiers to ensure national safety. Accordingly we offer such inducements to take up {391} the career of arms—instead of the trades of farm labourer, miner, carpenter, dock hand, shopkeeper, lawyer, physician, or stockbroker—as custom and the circumstances of the moment appear to require.
In an emergency we offer high pay and generous separation allowances to the private soldier. In normal times we give him less than the market rate of wages.
PAY OF THE BRITISH ARMY
The pay of junior or subaltern officers is so meagre that it cannot, by any possibility, cover the expenses which Government insists upon their incurring54. Captains, majors, and lieutenant-colonels are paid much less than the wages of foremen or sub-managers in any important industrial undertaking55. Even for those who attain56 the most brilliant success in their careers, there are no prizes which will stand comparison for a moment with a very moderate degree of prosperity in the world of trade or finance. They cannot even be compared with the prizes open to the bar or the medical profession.
Hitherto we have obtained our officers largely owing to a firmly rooted tradition among the country gentlemen and the military families—neither as a rule rich men, or even very easy in their circumstances as things go nowadays—many of them very poor—a tradition so strong that it is not cant, but plain truth, to call it sense of duty. There are other motives57, of course, which may lead a boy to choose this profession—love of adventure, comparative freedom from indoor life, pleasant comradeship, and in the case of the middle classes, recently risen to affluence58, social aspirations59. But even in the last there is far more good than harm; though in anti-militarist circles it is the unworthy aim which is usually dwelt upon with {392} a sneering60 emphasis. For very often, when a man has risen from humble61 circumstances to a fortune, he rejoices that his sons should serve the state, since it is in his power to make provision. The example of his neighbours, whose ancestors have been living on their acres since the days of the Plantagenets or the Tudors, is a noble example; and he is wise to follow it.
In the case of the rank and file of our army, a contract for a term of years (with obligations continuing for a further term of years) is entered into, and signed, under the circumstances which have already been considered. We are faced here with a phenomenon which seems strange in an Age which has conceded the right to 'down tools,' even though by so doing a solemn engagement is broken—in an Age which has become very fastidious about hiring agreements of most kinds, very suspicious of anything suggestive of 'servile conditions' or 'forced labour,' and which deprecates the idea of penalising breach62 of contract, on the part of a workman, even by process in the civil courts.
As regards a private soldier in the British army, however, the Age apparently63 has no such compunctions. His contract has been made under duress. Its obligations last for a long period of years. The pay is below the ordinary market rates. Everything in fact which, in equity64, would favour a revision, pleads in favour of the soldier who demands to be released. But let him plead and threaten as he please, he is not released. It is not a case of suing him for damages in the civil courts, but of dealing65 with him under discipline and mutiny acts, the terms of which are simple and drastic—in {393} peace time imprisonment67, in war time death. Without these means of enforcing the 'voluntary' system the British people would not feel themselves safe.
This phenomenon seems even stranger, when we remember that a large and influential68 part of the British people is not only very fastidious as to the terms of all other sorts of hiring agreements, as to rates of pay, and as to the conditions under which such contracts have been entered into—that it is not only most tender in dealing with the breach of such agreements—but that it also regards the object of the agreement for military service with particular suspicion. This section of the British people is anti-militarist on conscientious69 grounds. One would have thought, therefore, that it might have been more than usually careful to allow the man, who hires himself out for lethal70 purposes, to have the benefit of second thoughts; or even of third, fourth, and fifth thoughts. For he, too, may develop a conscience when his belly71 is no longer empty. But no: to do this would endanger the 'voluntary' system.
THE ANTI-MILITARIST CONSCIENCE
This anti-militarist section of the British people is composed of citizens who, if we are to believe their own professions, love peace more than other men love it, and hate violence as a deadly sin. They are determined72 not to commit this deadly sin themselves; but being unable to continue in pursuit of their material and spiritual affairs, unless others will sin in their behalf, they reluctantly agree to hire—at as low a price as possible—a number of wild fellows from the upper classes and wastrels73 from the lower classes—both of whom they regard as approximating to the reprobate74 type—to defend their property, to keep {394} their lives safe, to enforce their Will as it is declared by ballot75 papers and House of Commons divisions, and to allow them to continue their careers of beneficent self-interest undisturbed.
But for all that, we are puzzled by the rigour with which the contract for military service is enforced, even to the last ounce of the pound of flesh. Not a murmur76 of protest comes from this section of the British people, although it has professed77 to take the rights of the poorer classes as its special province. The explanation probably is that, like King Charles I., they have made a mental reservation, and are thus enabled to distinguish the case of the soldier from that of his brother who engages in a civil occupation.
Roughly speaking, they choose to regard the civilian78 as virtuous79, while the soldier, on the other hand, cannot safely be presumed to be anything of the sort. Sometimes indeed—perhaps more often than not—he appears to them to be distinctly unvirtuous. The presumption80 is against him; for if he were really virtuous, how could he ever have agreed to become a soldier, even under pressure of want? For regulating the service of such men as these force is a regrettable, but necessary, instrument. The unvirtuous man has agreed to sin, and the virtuous man acts justly in holding him to his bargain. If a soldier develops a conscience, and insists on 'downing tools' it is right to imprison66 him; even in certain circumstances to put him against a wall and shoot him.
These ideas wear an odd appearance when we come to examine them closely, and yet not only did they exist, but they were actually very prevalent down to the outbreak of the present war. They {395} seem to be somewhat prevalent, even now, in various quarters. But surely it is strange that virtuous citizens should need the protection of unvirtuous ones; that they should underpay; that they should adopt the methods of 'forced labour' as a necessary part of the 'voluntary system'; that they should imprison and shoot men for breach of hiring agreements—hiring agreements for long periods of years, entered into under pressure of circumstances.
ANTI-MILITARIST CONFIDENCE
But there is a thing even stranger than any of these. Considering how jealous the great anti-militarist section of our fellow-countrymen is of anything which places the army in a position to encroach upon, or overawe, the civil power, it seems very remarkable81 that they should nevertheless have taken a large number of men—whose morals, in their view, were below rather than above the average—should have armed them with rifles and bayonets, and spent large sums of money in making them as efficient as possible for lethal purposes, while refusing firmly to arm themselves with anything but ballot-boxes, or to make themselves fit for any form of self-defence.
It seems never to have crossed the minds of the anti-militarist section that those whom they thus regard—if not actually with moral reprehension82, at any rate somewhat askance—might perhaps some day discover that there were advantages in being armed, and in having become lethally83 efficient; that having studied the phenomena84 of strikes, and having there seen force of various kinds at work—hiring agreements broken, combinations to bring pressure on society successful, rather black things occasionally hushed up and forgiven—soldiers might draw their own conclusions. Having grown tired of pay lower {396} than the market rate, still more tired of moral lectures about the wickedness of their particular trade, and of tiresome85 old-fashioned phrases about the subordination of the military to the civil power—what if they, like other trades and classes, should begin to consider the propriety86 of putting pressure on society, since such pressure appears nowadays to be one of the recognised instruments for redress87 of wrongs? ... Have not professional soldiers the power to put pressure on society in the twentieth century, just as they have done, again and again, in past times in other kingdoms and democracies, where personal freedom was so highly esteemed88, that even the freedom to abstain89 from defending your country was respected by public opinion and the laws of the land?
But nonsense! In Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Italy, and other conscript countries armies are hundreds of times stronger than our own, while the soldiers in these cases are hardly paid enough to keep a smoker90 in pipe-tobacco. And yet they do not think of putting pressure on society, or of anything so horrible. This of course is true; but then, in these instances, the Army is only Society itself passing, as it were, like a may-fly, through a certain stage in its life-history. Army and Society in the conscript countries are one and the same. A man does not think of putting undue91 pressure upon himself. But in our case the Army and Society are not one and the same. Their relations are those of employer and employed, as they were in Rome long ago; and as between employer and employed, there are always apt to be questions of pay and position.
It is useful in this connection to think a little of Rome with its 'voluntary' or 'mercenary' or {397} 'professional' army—an army underpaid at first, afterwards perhaps somewhat overpaid, when it occurred to its mind to put pressure on society.
But Rome in the first century was a very different place from England in the twentieth. Very different indeed! The art and rules of war were considerably92 less of an expert's business than they are to-day. Two thousand years ago—weapons being still somewhat elementary—gunpowder not yet discovered—no railway trains and tubes, and outer and inner circles, which now are as necessary for feeding great cities as arteries93 and veins94 for keeping the human heart going—private citizens, moreover, being not altogether unused to acting95 with violence in self-defence—it might have taken, perhaps, 100,000 disciplined and well-led reprobates96 a week or more to hold the six millions of Greater London by the throat. To-day 10,000 could do this with ease between breakfast and dinner-time. Certainly a considerable difference—but somehow not a difference which seems altogether reassuring97.
Since the days of Oliver Cromwell the confidence of the anti-militarists in the docility98 of the British Army has never experienced any serious shock. But yet, according to the theories of this particular school, why should our army alone, of all trades and professions, be expected not to place its own class interests before those of the country?
ARMIES AS LIBERATORS
When professional armies make their first entry into practical politics it is almost always in the role of liberators and defenders100 of justice. An instance might easily occur if one or other set of politicians, in a fit of madness or presumption, were to ask, or order, the British Army to undertake certain {398} operations against a section of their fellow-countrymen, which the soldiers themselves judged to be contrary to justice and their own honour.
Something of this kind very nearly came to pass in March 1914. The Curragh incident, as it was called, showed in a flash what a perilous101 gulf102 opens, when a professional army is mishandled. Politicians, who have come by degrees to regard the army—not as a national force, or microcosm of the people, but as an instrument which electoral success has placed temporarily in their hands, and which may therefore be used legitimately103 for forwarding their own party ends—have ever been liable to blunder in this direction.
Whatever may have been the merits of the Curragh case, the part which the British Army was asked and expected to play on that occasion, was one which no democratic Government would have dared to order a conscript army to undertake, until it had been ascertained104, beyond any possibility of doubt, that the country as a whole believed extreme measures to be necessary for the national safety.
If professional soldiers, however high and patriotic105 their spirit, be treated as mercenaries—as if, in their dealings with their fellow-countrymen, they had neither souls nor consciences—it can be no matter for surprise if they should come by insensible degrees to think and act as mercenaries.... One set or other of party politicians—the occurrence is quite as conceivable in the case of a unionist Government as in that of a Liberal—issues certain orders, which it would never dare to issue to a conscript army, and these orders, to its immense surprise, are not obeyed. Thereupon a Government, which only the day before {399} seemed to be established securely on a House of Commons majority and the rock of tradition, is seen to be powerless. The army in its own eyes—possibly in that of public opinion also—has stood between the people and injustice106. It has refused to be made the instrument for performing an act of tyranny and oppression. Possibly in sorrow and disgust it dissolves itself and ceases to exist. Possibly, on the other hand, it glows with the approbation107 of its own conscience; begins to admire its own strength, and not improbably to wonder, if it might not be good for the country were soldiers to put forth108 their strong arm rather more often, in order to restrain the politicians from following evil courses. This of course is the end of democracy and the beginning of militarism.
An army which starts by playing the popular role of benefactor109, or liberator99, will end very speedily by becoming the instrument of a military despotism. We need look no farther back than Cromwell and his major-generals for an example. We have been in the habit of regarding such contingencies110 as remote and mediaeval; none the less we had all but started on this fatal course in the spring and summer of last year. We were then saved, not by the wisdom of statesmen—for these only increased the danger by the spectacle which they afforded of timidity, temper, and equivocation—but solely111 by the present war which, though it has brought us many horrors, has averted112, for a time at least, what is infinitely113 the worst of all.
SERVICE AND SUFFRAGE114
The conclusion is plain. A democracy which asserts the right of manhood suffrage, while denying the duty of manhood service, is living in a fool's paradise.
{400}
A democracy which does not fully115 identify itself with its army, which does not treat its army with honour and as an equal, but which treats it, on the contrary, as ill-bred and ill-tempered people treat their servants—with a mixture, that is, of fault-finding and condescension—is following a very perilous path.
An army which does not receive the treatment it deserves, and which at the same time is ordered by the politicians to perform services which, upon occasions, it may hold to be inconsistent with its honour, is a danger to the state.
A democracy which, having refused to train itself for its own defence, thinks nevertheless that it can safely raise the issue of 'the Army versus116 the People,' is mad.
[1] This was the German period of training for infantry117. The National Service League proposal was four months.
[2] The pay of the French private soldier is, I understand, about a sou—a halfpenny—a day. In his eyes the British soldier in the next trench118, who receives from a shilling to eighteenpence a day—and in the case of married men a separation allowance as well—must appear as a kind of millionaire. During the South African War the pay of certain volunteer regiments119 reached the preposterous120 figure of five shillings a day for privates. Men serving with our army as motor drivers—in comparative safety—receive something like six shillings or seven and sixpence a day.
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sergeant
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dingy
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morbidly
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psychology
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thoroughly
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chary
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duress
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sterling
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| adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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buoyed
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| v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神 | |
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outstripping
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| v.做得比…更好，（在赛跑等中）超过( outstrip的现在分词 ) | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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29
thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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30
vocations
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| n.（认为特别适合自己的）职业( vocation的名词复数 )；使命；神召；（认为某种工作或生活方式特别适合自己的）信心 | |
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31
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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32
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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33
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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34
drudgery
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| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
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35
secular
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| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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36
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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37
meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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38
exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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39
stamina
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| n.体力；精力；耐力 | |
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40
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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41
serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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42
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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43
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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44
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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45
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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46
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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47
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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48
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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49
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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50
taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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51
taunts
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| 嘲弄的言语，嘲笑，奚落( taunt的名词复数 ) | |
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jeers
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| n.操纵帆桁下部（使其上下的）索具；嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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53
contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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55
undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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56
attain
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| vt.达到，获得，完成 | |
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57
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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58
affluence
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| n.充裕，富足 | |
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aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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60
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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61
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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63
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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64
equity
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| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
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65
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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66
imprison
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| vt.监禁，关押，限制，束缚 | |
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67
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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68
influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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69
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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lethal
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| adj.致死的；毁灭性的 | |
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71
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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73
wastrels
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| n.无用的人，废物( wastrel的名词复数 )；浪子 | |
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reprobate
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| n.无赖汉；堕落的人 | |
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75
ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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76
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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77
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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78
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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79
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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80
presumption
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| n.推测，可能性，冒昧，放肆，[法律]推定 | |
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81
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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82
reprehension
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| n.非难，指责 | |
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83
lethally
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| adv.致命地；危害地；极具威胁地 | |
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84
phenomena
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| n.现象 | |
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85
tiresome
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| adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的 | |
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86
propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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87
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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88
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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89
abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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90
smoker
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| n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室 | |
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91
undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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92
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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93
arteries
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| n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道 | |
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94
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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95
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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96
reprobates
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| n.道德败坏的人，恶棍( reprobate的名词复数 ) | |
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97
reassuring
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| a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的 | |
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98
docility
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| n.容易教，易驾驶，驯服 | |
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99
liberator
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| 解放者 | |
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100
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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101
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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102
gulf
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| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
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103
legitimately
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| ad.合法地；正当地，合理地 | |
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104
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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105
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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106
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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107
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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108
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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109
benefactor
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| n. 恩人，行善的人，捐助人 | |
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110
contingencies
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| n.偶然发生的事故，意外事故( contingency的名词复数 )；以备万一 | |
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111
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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112
averted
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| 防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移 | |
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113
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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114
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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115
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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116
versus
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| prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下 | |
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117
infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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118
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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119
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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120
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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