The Repeal Agitation in Ireland, which had been thoroughly8 organised in 1842 by "Repeal Missionaries9" who had visited every parish in the country, reached its culminating point in 1843. Early in February that year Mr. O'Connell, who had filled the civic10 chair the previous year, and was then an alderman of the Dublin Corporation, gave notice that, on the 21st of that month, he would move a resolution, affirming the right of Ireland to a resident Parliament, and the necessity of repealing11 the union. Alderman Butt12 expressed his determination of opposing the motion. Mr. Butt was one of the ablest members of the Irish bar, and a leader of the Conservative party. The debate was therefore anticipated with the greatest interest, as it promised to be a very exciting political duel13. The old Assembly House, since abandoned for the more commodious14 City Hall, was densely15 crowded by the principal citizens, while the street was thronged16 by the populace during the debate. Mr. O'Connell marshalled his arguments under many heads: Ireland's capacity for independence—her right to have a Parliament of her own—the establishment of that right in 1782—the prosperity that followed—the incompetence18 of the Irish Parliament to destroy the Constitution—the corrupt19 means by which the union was carried—its disastrous20 results, and the national benefits that would follow its repeal. The speech, which lasted four hours, was mainly argumentative and statistical21. It was accepted by his followers22 as an elaborate and masterly statement of the case. Mr. Butt replied with equal ability and more fervid23 eloquence24. The debate was adjourned25. Next day other members took part in it. It was again adjourned, and as the contest proceeded the public excitement rose to fever heat. At two o'clock on the third day Mr. O'Connell rose to reply. "No report," says Mr. O'Neil Daunt26, "could possibly do justice to that magnificent reply. The consciousness of a great moral triumph seemed to animate27 his voice, his[526] glance, and his gestures. Never had I heard him so eloquent28, never had I witnessed so noble a display of his transcendent powers." The division showed that 41 were in favour of a domestic legislature and 15 were opposed to it.
It has been remarked that the "monster meetings" could never have been conducted in the orderly manner for which they were distinguished29, but for the Temperance reform which had been effected by Father Mathew, a benevolent30, tolerant, and single-minded friar from Cork, who was known as the Apostle of Temperance, and who had induced vast numbers from all parts of the country to take the pledge, which the majority religiously kept for some years. The monster meetings, of which forty-five were held during the year, were vast assemblages whose numbers it was difficult to calculate, but they varied32 from 20,000 to 100,000 each. The people, generally well-dressed, came crowding to the appointed place from every direction, some on horseback, some on jaunting cars and carts, generally preceded by bands with immense banners, and sometimes marching in military order. O'Connell, the "uncrowned monarch34," as his followers called him, arrived from Dublin, sitting on the dickey of a coach, usually drawn35 by four horses. He was always accompanied by his devoted36 friend, Tom Steel, the "head pacificator," one of the most ardent37 of hero-worshippers, who looked up to his chief as a sort of demi-god. The first of the monster meetings was held at Trim, in the county Meath, on the 19th of March, and was said to have been attended by about 30,000 persons. A dinner took place in the evening, at which Mr. O'Connell delivered an exciting speech. Referring to the bright eyes and hardy38 look of the multitudes that surrounded him that day, he asked, would they be everlasting39 slaves? They would answer "No," and he would join in the response, and say, "I shall be either in my grave or be a free man. Idle sentiments will not do. It will not do to say you like to be free. The man who thinks and does not act upon his thoughts is a scoundrel who does not deserve to be free." The monster meeting held at Mullingar on the 14th of May (Sunday) was attended by Dr. Cantwell and Dr. Higgins, two Roman Catholic bishops41, and a great number of priests. This was one of the largest of the meetings, and was remarkable43 for the declaration made by Dr. Higgins, to the effect that "every Roman Catholic bishop42 in Ireland, without exception, was a Repealer. He defied all the Ministers of England to put down the agitation. If they prevented them from assembling in the open fields, they would retire to their chapels45, and suspend all other instruction, in order to devote all their time to teaching the people to be Repealers. They were even ready to go to the scaffold for the cause of their country, and bequeath its wrongs to their successors." This outburst excited tumultuous applause, the whole assembly rising and cheering for a considerable time.
During the summer, meetings of a similar character were held at Cork, Longford, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Mallow, Dundalk, Baltinglass, Tara, and other places. At Tara, in the county Meath, on the 15th of August, an immense multitude was assembled—250,000, at the lowest estimate, but represented by the Repeal journals as four times that number. The place was selected because of its association with the old nationality of the country, where its ancient kings were elected and crowned. O'Connell's speech on this occasion was defiant47 in tone, and in the highest degree inflammatory. Referring to a speech of the Duke of Wellington, he said, "The Duke of Wellington is now talking of attacking us, and I am glad of it. The Queen's army is the bravest army in the world, but I feel it to be a fact that Ireland, roused as she is at the present moment, would, if they made war upon us, furnish women enough to beat the whole of the Queen's forces." The Lord Chancellor48 Sugden having recently deprived of the commission of the peace all magistrates who were members of the Repeal Association, Mr. O'Connell announced that the dismissed magistrates would be appointed by the Repeal Association as arbitrators to settle all disputes among the people, who were not again to go to the petty sessions. He pronounced the union to be null, to be obeyed as an injustice49 supported by law, until they had the royal authority to set the matter right and substitute their own Parliament. In his speech after dinner to a more select audience, he said that the statesman was a driveller who did not recollect50 the might that slumbers51 in a peasant's arm, and who expected that 700,000 such men would endure oppression for ever. An outbreak would surely come, though not in his time, and then the Government and gentry52 would weep, in tears of blood, their want of consideration and kindness to the country whose people could reward them amply by the devotion of their hearts and the vigour55 of their arms. What were the gentry afraid of? It could not be of the people, for they were under the strictest discipline. No army was ever more submissive to its general than the[527] people of Ireland were to the wishes of a single individual.
While the agitation was going forward in this manner in Ireland, the state of that country was the subject of repeated and animated56 debates in Parliament. One of the remedies proposed by the Government was an Arms Bill, which was opposed with great vehemence57 by the Irish Liberal members. Mr. Shaw, the Recorder of Dublin, in his speech on the second reading, described the condition of Ireland from the Conservative point of view; he considered that the country was in an alarming state, the lower classes extensively agitated58, and the higher unusually dejected and depressed59. Even the great benefit of the temperance movement had brought with it the evil of an organisation60 now turned to the most dangerous purposes. The real object of the Repeal agitation was to array the people and the priesthood against the property of the country. There was no class more alarmed at the progress of the movement than the respectable portion of the Roman Catholics, who dreaded61 lest they should be swept away by the tide. If the law did not put down the agitation, the agitation would put down the Constitution. Mr. C. Buller's remedy was "to Canadianise" Ireland, which meant to make Mr. O'Connell Attorney-General, and substitute the titulars for the clergy62 of the Establishment. Mr. Roebuck thought "there was no great difference between the late and the present Government. Neither of them had put down the giant evil of Ireland, her rampant63 Church. He would take away her revenue, and give it, if to any Church at all, to the Church of the Roman Catholics. The grand evil and sore of Ireland was the domination of the Church of the minority."
In the House of Lords several discussions took place on the dismissal of the Repeal magistrates. Lord Clanricarde, on the 14th of July, moved resolutions declaring that act of the Lord Chancellor "unconstitutional, unjust, and inexpedient." The Duke of Wellington met the motion by a direct negative. "These meetings," he said, "consisting of 10,000, 20,000, or 100,000 men—no matter the number of thousands—having been continued, I wish to know with what object they were continued? With a view to address Parliament to repeal the union? No, my lords; they were continued in order to obtain the desired repeal of the union by the terror of the people, and, if not by terror, by force and violence; and the persons calling these meetings were magistrates, the very men who must have been employed by the Government to resist such terror and violence, and to arrest those who were guilty of such breaches64 of the peace. That is the ground on which the Lord Chancellor of Ireland said to the magistrates, 'You must be dismissed if you attend, or invite attendance at such meetings.'" The Duke "regretted to learn there was poverty in Ireland; but," he asked, "was that poverty relieved by a march of twenty-five and thirty miles a day in spring and summer to hear seditious speeches? Was poverty relieved by subscribing65 to the Repeal rent?" The resolutions were negatived by a majority of 91 to 29. In a subsequent debate, arising out of a petition presented by Lord Roden from 5,000 Ulster Protestants, complaining that they had been prevented from celebrating the Orange anniversary, while the most flagrant breaches of the law were passed over in the case of those who wanted to overthrow66 the Constitution, which the Orangemen were sworn to defend, the Duke of Wellington, on that occasion, said that "nothing had been neglected by the Government that was necessary to preserve the peace of the country, and to meet all misfortunes and consequences which might result from the violence of the passions of those men who unfortunately guided the multitude in Ireland. He did not dispute the extent of the conspiracy67 or the dangers resulting from it; he did not deny the assistance received from foreigners of nearly all nations—disturbed and disturbing spirits, who were anxious to have an opportunity of injuring and deteriorating68 the great prosperity of this country—but he felt confident that the measures adopted by the Government would enable it to resist all, and preserve the peace."
[528]
O'CONNELL AT THE MEETING AT TRIM. (See p. 526.)
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[529]
Mr. Smith O'Brien, early in July, gave occasion for another great debate on the state of Ireland, by moving that the House resolve itself into a committee for the purpose of taking into consideration the causes of the discontent prevailing69 there, with a view to the redress70 of grievances71, and the establishment of a system of just and impartial72 government in that part of the United Kingdom. The honourable73 gentleman reviewed the history of the country since the union, discussed the questions of the National Debt and taxation74, the Church Establishment, the position of the Roman Catholic hierarchy75, Government appointments, Coercive Acts, and land tenure76. Lord Eliot, then Chief Secretary of Ireland, answered his arguments at length. A great number of speakers followed, continuing the debate for five nights. At length the House divided, when the numbers were—against the motion for a committee, 243; for it, 164. The whole of these vexed77 questions again came up on the 9th of August, when the Irish Arms Bill was set down for the third reading. On this occasion Sir Robert Peel made some remarks, expressing the feeling of his Government with regard to Ireland, declaring that he viewed the state of things there with deep anxiety and pain. He had hoped that there was a gradual abatement78 of animosity on account of religious differences; that he saw the gradual influence of those laws which removed the political disabilities of Catholics and established civil equality. He thought he saw, in some respects, a great moral and social improvement; that there was a hope of increasing tranquillity79, which would cause the redundant80 and superfluous81 capital of England, then seeking vent44 in foreign and precarious82 speculations83, to flow into Ireland. But the agitation had, in his opinion, blasted all those hopes.
SIR JAMES GRAHAM.
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The third reading of the Arms Bill passed by a majority of 66, and soon received the Royal Assent85. In the Queen's Speech at the close of the Session there was a very pointed33 reference made to the state of Ireland. Her Majesty86 said that she had observed with the deepest concern the persevering87 efforts made to stir up discontent and disaffection among her subjects in Ireland, and to excite them to demand the repeal of the union; and from her deep conviction that the union was not less essential to the attainment88 of good government in Ireland than to the strength and stability of the empire, it was her firm determination, with the support of Parliament, and under the blessing89 of Divine Providence90, to maintain inviolate91 that great bond of connection between the two countries. She thus concluded, "I feel assured that[530] those of my faithful subjects who have influence and authority in Ireland will discourage to the utmost of their power a system of pernicious agitation which disturbs the industry and retards92 the improvement of that country, and excites feelings of mutual93 distrust and animosity between different classes of my people."
This royal denunciation of the Repeal movement greatly exasperated94 O'Connell. He had recently submitted a plan to the Repeal Association, recommended by a committee of which he was chairman, for the restoration of the Irish Parliament. In the document containing this plan it was declared that the people of Ireland finally insisted upon the restoration of the Irish House of Commons, consisting of 300 representatives, and claimed, in "the presence of the Creator," the right of the Irish people to such restoration, stating that they submitted to the union as being binding95 in law, but solemnly denied that it was founded on right, or on constitutional principle, or that it was obligatory96 on conscience. The franchise97 was to be household suffrage98, and the voting by ballot99. It was also provided that the monarch or regent de jure in England should be the monarch or regent de facto in Ireland. This revolutionary scheme was to be carried into effect, "according to recognised law and strict constitutional principle." The arbitration100 courts which O'Connell had threatened to set up, in consequence of the superseding101 of magistrates connected with the Repeal Association, had actually been established; and the Roman Catholic peasantry, forsaking102 the regular tribunals, had recourse to them for the settlement of their disputes.
The Repeal organisation had therefore become exceedingly formidable, and had been rendered still more so by what O'Connell called "the mighty103 moral miracle of 5,000,000 men pledged against intoxicating104 liquors." If he had to go to battle, he said, he should have the strong and steady teetotallers with him. The teetotal bands "would play before them, and animate them in the time of peril105; their wives and daughters, thanking God for their sobriety, would be praying for their safety; and he told them there was not an army in the world he could not beat with his teetotallers. Yes, teetotalism was the first sure ground on which rested their hope of sweeping106 away Saxon domination and giving Ireland to the Irish." O'Connell had been in the habit of wearing a crown-like cap, richly ornamented107, which had been presented to him at the monster meeting at the Rath of Mullaghmast, in the county Kildare. This symbol of sovereignty had its effect upon the masses, who began to cherish the idea that they might have ere long a king of their own. It was probably with a view to encourage this idea, and to raise their enthusiasm to the highest pitch, that he resolved to hold the last of the series of monster meetings at Clontarf, near Dublin, the scene of King Brian Boru's victory over the Danes. This meeting was to be held on Sunday, the 8th of October, and was to be the most imposing108 of all the demonstrations110. But the Government was at last roused to action, and on the previous day a proclamation was issued by the Lord-Lieutenant in Council, prohibiting the assembly. The proclamation declared that whereas advertisements and placards had been printed and extensively circulated, calling on those who proposed to attend the meeting to come on horseback, to meet and form in procession, and to march in military order and array; and whereas the object of the meeting was to excite discontent and disaffection, hatred113 and contempt of the Government of the country, and to accomplish alterations114 in the laws and Constitution of the realm, by intimidation115 and the demonstration109 of physical force, tending also to serve the ends of factious116 and seditious persons, and violate the peace, the meeting was strictly117 prohibited. It was stated that those attending it should be prosecuted118, and that effectual measures should be taken for its dispersion.
This was no idle threat; the guards at Dublin castle and at the several barracks were doubled; Alborough House, commanding the road to Clontarf, was garrisoned119; the streets on the north side of the city were patrolled by parties of soldiers during the night. Three war steamers were placed in the Liffey, with their guns run out, commanding the ground where the meeting was to be held; while the guns at the Pigeon House fort at the mouth of the river, right opposite Clontarf, were so placed as to sweep the road to it. The village was occupied by the 5th Dragoon Guards, the 60th Rifles, the 11th Hussars, the 54th Regiment120 of Infantry121, and a brigade of Royal Horse Artillery122; the infantry being commanded by Colonel Fane, the cavalry123 by Lord Cardigan, and the artillery by Colonel Higgins. The men and horses were provisioned for twenty-four hours, and each soldier was furnished with sixty rounds of ball cartridge124. A crisis had now come; a collision between the troops and O'Connell's army of teetotallers was imminent125, and even he could have no doubt of the[531] issue. He seemed to stand appalled126 on the edge of the precipice127 to which he had brought his deluded128 followers, and shrinking from the consequences, he made all possible haste to save them. As soon as the proclamation was issued, he called a special meeting of the Repeal Association, and announced that in consequence of the measures taken by the Government, which he denounced as "the most base and imbecile step ever taken," there would be no meeting at Clontarf the next day. He submitted a counter-proclamation, which was adopted and posted up that evening throughout the city beside the Government proclamation. It was also sent by special messengers to the neighbouring towns and villages. The preventive measures taken on both sides were completely successful. No mounted Repealers came in from the country, and though vast multitudes went out from Dublin to view the military demonstrations, their meeting with the Queen's forces was quite amicable129. They were allowed to see the spectacle, but they were compelled to move on along the high road, which they did very good-humouredly.
The Government now resolved to follow up the vigorous step they had so tardily130 taken, by the prosecution131 of O'Connell and several leading members of the Association. They were arrested in Dublin on the 14th of October, charged with conspiracy, sedition132, and unlawful assembly. The other gentlemen included in the prosecution were Mr. John O'Connell, Mr. Thomas Steele, Mr. Ray, Secretary to the Repeal Association, Dr. Gray, proprietor133 of the Freeman's Journal, Mr. Charles Gavan Duffy, editor of the Nation, Mr. Barrett, of the Pilot, and the Rev4. Messrs. Tyrrell and Tierney, Roman Catholic priests. Mr. O'Connell, with his two sons and several friends, immediately on his arrest, went to the house of Mr. Justice Burton, and entered into recognisances, himself in £1,000, with two sureties of £500 each. The tone of Mr. O'Connell was now suddenly changed. From being inflammatory, warlike, and defiant, it became intensely pacific, and he used his utmost efforts to calm the minds of the people, to lay the storm he had raised, and to soothe134 the feelings he had irritated by angry denunciations of the "Saxon." That obnoxious135 word was now laid aside, being, at his request, struck out of the Repeal vocabulary, because it gave offence. Real conciliation136 was now the order of the day.
The State prosecutions137 commenced in January, 1844, in the Court of Queen's Bench, before the Lord Chief Justice Penefather, and Justices Burton, Crampton, and Perrin. Besides the Attorney and Solicitor-General, there were ten counsel employed for the Crown, and there was an equal number on the side of the traversers, including Mr. Sheil, Mr. Hatchel, Mr. Moore, Mr. Whiteside, Mr. Monaghan, afterwards Chief Justice, Mr. O'Hagan, and Mr. Macdonogh. This monster trial was remarkable in many respects. It excited great public interest, which pervaded138 all classes, from the highest to the lowest. It lasted from the 16th of January to the 12th of February; the speech of the Attorney-General occupied two days; the jury list was found to be defective139, a number of names having been secretly abstracted; newspaper articles were admitted as evidence against men who never saw them; the Lord Chief Justice betrayed his partiality in charging the jury, by speaking of the traversers as "the other side." The principal witnesses were shorthand writers from London, avowedly140 employed by the Government to report the proceedings141 of the monster meetings. Mr. Jackson, reporter for the Morning Herald143, also placed his notes at the service of the Government. Mr. O'Connell defended himself in a long argument for Repeal, and an attack on the Government. The most brilliant orations144 delivered on the occasion were those of Sheil and Whiteside. Mr. Fitzgibbon, one of the counsel for the traversers, made a remark offensive to the Attorney-General, Mr. T. C. B. Smith, who immediately handed him a challenge, in the presence of his wife, while the judges had retired145 for refreshment146. The matter was brought before the court, and, after mutual explanations, was allowed to drop.
All the traversers were found guilty. The Attorney-General did not press for judgment147 against the Rev. Matthew Tierney. Upon the rest Mr. Justice Burton, who was deeply affected148, pronounced judgment on the 30th of May, in the following terms:—"With respect to the principal traverser, the Court is of opinion that he must be sentenced to be imprisoned149 for the space of twelve calendar months; and that he is further to be fined in the sum of £2,000, and bound in his own recognisances in the sum of £5,000, and two sureties in £2,500, to keep the peace for seven years. With respect to the other traversers, we have come to the conclusion that to each shall be allotted150 similar sentences, namely, that they be imprisoned for the space of nine calendar months, each of them to pay £50 fine, and to enter into their own recognisances of £1,000 each, and two sureties of £500, to keep the peace for seven years."
The prisoners were at once sent to Richmond[532] Bridewell, on the South Circular Road, where the Governor did all in his power to make them comfortable. Good apartments were assigned to them. They dined together every day, and they were permitted to receive, without restriction151, the visits of their friends and admirers. The Government was the less disposed to interfere152 with these indulgences, as their object was not so much punishment as prevention, and besides, the traversers had appealed against the sentence. A majority of the twelve English judges affirmed the judgment of the Court of Queen's Bench, while condemning153 the counts on which the Irish court relied. An appeal was then made to the House of Lords. The decision was left to the five law lords—Lyndhurst, Brougham, Cottenham, Denman, and Campbell. The first two were for a confirmation154 of the judgment, the last three for reversal. Lord Denman, in pronouncing judgment, said, referring to the tampering155 with the panel, "If such practices as had taken place in the present instance in Ireland should continue, the trial by jury would become a mockery, a delusion156, and a snare," a sentence which was hackneyed by repetition for years afterwards. The news of the reversal reached Dublin on the afternoon of the 5th of September. Great crowds had assembled on the pier157 at Kingstown, and tremendous cheers broke forth158 from the multitude when the Holyhead packet approached, and they saw held up a white flag, with the inscription159, "Judgment reversed by the House of Lords. O'Connell is free!" The news was everywhere received by the Roman Catholics with wild excitement.
Orders soon came from the Government for the liberation of the prisoners. After some consultation160 with their friends, it was resolved that there should be a public procession from the prison in the morning. Mr. O'Connell, however, left that evening, and proceeded on foot to his house in Merrion Square. Before he had reached the square, the tidings spread abroad that he was out, and crowds rapidly assembled from all directions. The people leaped and danced about him, while their acclamations rent the air. When he placed his foot upon the step to ascend161 to his own door, the exulting162 shouts of some 10,000 or 15,000 people were almost deafening163. Appearing on the balcony of his house, where he had often stood before, to address his followers, they could scarcely be got to keep silence while he spoke164. The procession next day was, in point of magnitude, quite in keeping with the other "monster" proceedings. Twelve o'clock was the time appointed to start from the prison, and at that hour the first part of the procession arrived. Its length may be inferred from the fact that it was not until two o'clock that the triumphal car reached the prison gate. During those two hours thousands upon thousands defiled165 before it in one unbroken line of men, perfect order being kept, without the aid of a single policeman, and the marching mass being broken into sections only by the bands of music, preceding the flags or carriages of the different trades, which numbered about thirty. The bands were all dressed in fancy uniforms, bearing bright colours—blue, pink, and green—with banners of the most gorgeous description. There was such a demand for carriages and vehicles of all sorts, that Dublin alone could not meet it, and carriages were obtained from Bray166, and various other places around the metropolis167. The procession was composed of Repeal wardens168, members of the Repeal Association, the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and town council, personal friends and political admirers of O'Connell.
The news of his liberation was carried that night by the mail coaches over all parts of the country, and produced extraordinary excitement throughout the south and west, particularly in Cork, which Mr. O'Connell then represented. There the whole population seems to have turned out, some of the streets being so packed that it was impossible to get along. Processions were soon formed, with bands of music, and green boughs169. Even the little children were furnished with the emblems170 of victory. Along the country roads, too, as well as in the towns and villages, every little cabin had its green boughs stuck up, and its group of inhabitants shouting for "the Liberator171." At night, in the towns, every house was illuminated172, while bonfires blazed on the mountains, and the horizon seemed on fire in every direction. On the following Sunday the liberation of the prisoners was celebrated173 in the Metropolitan174 Church, Dublin. Archbishop Murray sat with his mitre on, and in his grandest robes, on an elevated throne, with crimson175 canopy176. On the opposite side, beneath the pulpit, were chairs of state, on which sat O'Connell and the rest of the "Repeal martyrs177." A Te Deum was sung for the deliverance of the liberator of his country; a sermon was preached by O'Connell's devoted friend and chaplain, the Rev. Dr. Miley, who ascribed the liberation, not to the law lords, but to the Virgin178 Mary.
[533]
O'CONNELL RETURNING HOME FROM PRISON. (See p. 532.)
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Notwithstanding these rejoicings, however, there is no doubt that the imprisonment179 completely broke the spirit of O'Connell. During 1843 he had been urged forward by the impetuosity and warlike spirit of the Young Ireland party, and the excitement of the monster meetings seems to have filled his mind with the notion that he could really wield180 the physical power of the country in an actual contest with the Queen's forces. His prison reflections dissipated all such illusions. The enforced inactivity, at his time of life, of one accustomed to so much labour and to such constant speaking, no doubt affected his health. Probably the softening181 of the brain, of which he died, commenced about this time. At all events he was thenceforward an altered man, excessively cautious and timid, with a morbid182 horror of war and blood, and a rooted dislike of the Young Ireland leaders, which the Old Ireland party did all they could to strengthen. Mr. Smith O'Brien had been the Conservative member for the county of Limerick, and had been opposed to the Repeal agitation; but the moment O'Connell was arrested, he joined the Association, taking the vacant position of leader, and adopting the policy of the Young Ireland party, which avowedly tended to war and revolution. Boasting of a lineal descent from the conqueror183 of the Danes at Clontarf, and hailed by some of his admirers as one who had a right to wear his crown, the new convert to Repeal seemed determined184 to go all lengths for the liberation of[534] his country from the Saxon yoke185. O'Connell at first seemed to rejoice in the accession of strength to the cause, but signs of jealousy186 and dislike were soon manifested. In private there was a marked coolness between the two leaders, and when, at the meetings of the Association, any of the Young Ireland orators187 gave utterance188 to martial189 sentiments, they were promptly190 called to order by O'Connell; but they revenged themselves by frequently outvoting him in committee, which was a grievous mortification191 to one so long accustomed to almost absolute rule among his followers. He attended Parliament during the Session of 1845-46, diligently192 performing his duties as a representative, sitting in committees, and taking part in the debates of the House. During his absence the Young Ireland party gained a complete ascendency in the Repeal Association. Mr. Smith O'Brien, who refused to sit on any committee in the House of Commons not connected with Irish business, and was imprisoned in the cellar for his contumacy, made himself an idol193 with the revolutionary party at home by his refractory194 spirit and the perversity195 of his conduct. The other leaders of that party who exerted the greatest influence were Thomas Davis, Charles Gavan Duffy, D'Arcy M'Gee, and Thomas Meagher—all men of superior ability, whose organ, the Nation, exerted great influence throughout the country. Ultimately, a series of "peace resolutions," which were proposed in the Repeal Association, pledging its members to abjure196 the sword as an instrument for redressing197 the grievances of Ireland, caused an open rupture198 between the two parties. The Young Irelanders seceded199 in a body from Conciliation Hall, and established an organisation of their own—"The Irish Confederation." From this time the Repeal rent rapidly fell off, and when O'Connell again returned to Dublin he found that the spell of his enchantment200, once so potent201, was broken; and the famine came soon after, to consummate202 his affliction and break his heart. Before the sad close of his public career had arrived, and pending203 the issue of the State trial, O'Connell had a proof of the magnanimity of the English people, of those Saxons whose national character he had so often assailed204 and maligned205. When he appeared at one of the Anti-Corn-Law meetings in Covent Garden Theatre, his reception by the assembled multitude is described as one of the most magnificent displays of popular enthusiasm ever witnessed. They remembered only that his jury was packed, that his judges were prejudiced, and that he had been for thirty years the able and consistent opponent of the Corn Laws. He declared himself that he was not prepared for such a demonstration, even by the experience of the monster meetings. This great triumph on English ground seemed to infuse new life into the veteran agitator206, for his speech on that occasion was one of the finest and most effective he ever delivered.
In the meantime the Irish State trial, and the affairs of Ireland generally, were the subject of frequent discussions in both Houses of Parliament. On the 13th of February the Marquis of Normanby moved a resolution condemnatory207 of the policy of the Government, contrasting it with his own Administration, with the treatment of Canada, and with the liberal policy by which, he said, Austria had conquered disaffection in Lombardy. He was answered by Lord Roden and others, and on a division his motion was rejected by a majority of 175 to 78. On the same day the state of Ireland was introduced by Lord John Russell, in a speech which occupied three hours. The debate that followed lasted for nine days. The principal speakers who took part in it were Mr. Wyse, Sir James Graham, Mr. Young, Sir George Grey, Lord Eliot, Mr. Shaw, the Recorder of Dublin, Lord Howick, Lord Stanley, Mr. Macaulay, Sir William Follett, Sir Thomas Wilde, Sir F. Pollock, the English Attorney-General, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Sheil, and Sir Robert Peel. The discussion turned mainly upon the question whether or not O'Connell had had a fair trial, and upon this the lawyers and the House pronounced opinions in harmony with the interests of their respective parties. But nearly every topic that could be mentioned was brought up in the course of the monster debate. Sir Robert Peel concluded a long and able speech in defence of his Government with the following beautiful peroration:—"I have a firm conviction that if there were calm and tranquillity in Ireland, there is no part of the British empire that would make such rapid progress in improvement. There are facilities for improvement and opportunities for it which will make the advance of Ireland more rapid than the advance of any other country. I will conclude, then, by expressing my sincere and earnest hope that this agitation, and all the evil consequences of it, may be permitted to subside208; and hereafter, in whatever capacity I may be, I should consider that the happiest day of my life when I could see the beloved Sovereign of these realms fulfilling the fondest wishes of her heart, possessing a feeling of affection towards all her people, but mingling209 that[535] affection with sympathy and tenderness towards Ireland. I should hail the dawning of that auspicious210 day, when she could alight like some benignant spirit on the shores of Ireland, and lay the foundations of a temple of peace; when she could, in accents which proceeded from the heart—spoken to the heart rather than to the ear—call upon her Irish subjects of all classes and of all denominations211, Protestants and Roman Catholics, Saxon and Celt, to forget the difference of creed212 and of race, and to hallow that temple of peace which she should then found, with sacrifices still holier than those by which the temples of old were hallowed—by the sacrifice of those evil passions that dishonour213 our common faith, and prevent the union of heart and hand in defence of our common country."
We now arrive at the "Irish Crisis," the famine of 1846 and 1847—one of the greatest calamities214 that ever afflicted215 the human race. In order to understand fully216 the events connected with this visitation, it is necessary to notice the social condition of the country which rendered its effects so destructive. Ireland had long been in a chronic217 state of misery218, which has been ascribed by the most competent judges to the peculiar219 state of the land tenure in that country. It had often been predicted by writers on the state of Ireland, that, owing to this rottenness at the foundation of the social fabric220, it would come down with a crash some day. The facts reported by the Census221 Commissioners222 of 1841 showed that this consummation could not be far off. Out of a population of 8,000,000, there were 3,700,000 above the age of five years who could neither read nor write; while nearly three millions and a half lived in mud cabins, badly thatched with straw, having each but one room, and often without either a window or a chimney. These figures indicate a mass of ignorance and poverty which could not be contemplated223 without alarm, and the subject was, therefore, constantly pressed upon the attention of Parliament. As usual in cases of difficulty, the Government, feeling that something should be done, and not knowing what to do, appointed, in 1845, a commission to inquire into the relations between landlord and tenant112, and the condition of the working classes. At the head of this commission was the Earl of Devon, a benevolent nobleman, whose sympathies were on the side of the people. Captain Kennedy, the secretary to the Commissioners, published a digest of the report of the evidence, which presented the facts in a readable form, and was the means of diffusing224 a large amount of authentic225 information on the state of Ireland. The Commissioners travelled through the country, held courts of inquiry226, and examined witnesses of all classes. As the result of their extensive intercourse227 with the farming classes and their own observations, they were enabled to state that in almost every part of Ireland unequivocal symptoms of improvement, in spite of many embarrassing and counteracting228 circumstances, continually presented themselves to the view, and that there existed a very general and increasing spirit and desire for the promotion229 of such improvement, from which the most beneficial results might fairly be expected. Indeed, speaking of the country generally, they add: "With some exceptions, which are unfortunately too notorious, we believe that at no former period did so active a spirit of improvement prevail; nor could well-directed measures for the attainment of that object have been proposed with a better prospect230 of success than at the present moment."
But this improvement produced no sensible effect upon the mass of labouring people. However brightly the sun of prosperity might gild231 the eminences232 of society, the darkness of misery and despair settled upon the masses below. The Commissioners proceed:—"A reference to the evidence of most of the witnesses will show that the agricultural labourer of Ireland continues to suffer the greatest privations and hardships; that he continues to depend upon casual and precarious employment for subsistence; that he is still badly housed, badly fed, badly clothed, and badly paid for his labour. Our personal experience and observation during our inquiry have afforded us a melancholy233 confirmation of these statements; and we cannot forbear expressing our strong sense of the patient endurance which the labouring classes have generally exhibited under sufferings greater, we believe, than the people of any other country in Europe have to sustain."
It was found that the potato was almost the only food of the Irish millions, and that it formed their chief means of obtaining the other necessaries of life. A large portion of this crop was grown under the conacre system, to which the poorest of the peasantry were obliged to have recourse, notwithstanding the minute subdivision of land. In 1841 there were 691,000 farms in Ireland exceeding one acre in extent. Nearly one-half of these were under five acres each. The number of proprietors234 in fee was estimated at 8,000—a smaller number in proportion to the extent of territory than in any other country of Western[536] Europe except Spain. In Connaught, several proprietors had 100,000 acres each, the proportion of small farms being greater there than in the rest of Ireland. The total number of farms in the province was 155,842, and of these 100,254 consisted of from one to five acres. If all the proprietors had resided among their tenantry, and been in a position to encourage their industry and care for their welfare, matters would not have been so bad; but most of the large landowners were absentees. It frequently happened that the large estates were held in strict limitation, and they were nearly all heavily encumbered235. The owners preferred living in England or on the Continent, having let their lands on long leases or in perpetuity to "middlemen," who sublet236 them for as high rents as they could get. Their tenants237 again sublet, so that it frequently happened that two, three, or four landlords intervened between the proprietors and the occupying tenant, each deriving238 an interest from the land. The head landlord therefore, though ever so well-disposed, had no power whatever to help the occupying tenants generally, and of those who had the power, very few felt disposed. There were extensive districts without a single resident proprietor, and when the absentees were appealed to by the local relief committees during the famine to assist the perishing people, they seldom took the trouble of answering the application.
The minute subdivision of land which placed the population in a state of such complete dependence17 upon the potato was first encouraged by the landlords, in order to multiply the number of voters, and increase their Parliamentary interest; but subsequently, as the population increased, it became in a great measure the work of the people themselves. The possession of land afforded the only certain means of subsistence, and a farm was therefore divided among the sons of the family, each one, as he was married—which happened early—receiving some share, and each daughter also often getting a slice as her marriage-portion. In vain were clauses against subletting240 inserted in leases; in vain was the erection of new houses prohibited; in vain did the landlord threaten the tenant. The latter relied upon the sympathy of his class to prevent ejectment, and on his own ingenuity241 to defeat the other impediments to his favourite mode of providing for his family. This process was at length carried to an extreme that became perfectly242 ludicrous. Instead of each sub-tenant or assignee of a portion of the farm receiving his holding in one compact lot, he obtained a part of each particular quality of land, so that his tenement243 consisted of a number of scattered244 patches, each too small to be separately fenced, and exposed to the constant depredations245 of his neighbours' cattle, thus affording a fruitful source of quarrels, and utterly246 preventing the possibility of any improved system of husbandry. These small patches, however, were not numerous enough to afford "potato gardens" for the still increasing population, and hence arose the conacre system, by which those who occupied no land were enabled to grow potatoes for themselves. Tempted247 by the high rent, which varied from £8 to £14 an acre without manure248, the farmers gave to the cottiers in their neighbourhood the use of their land merely for the potato crop, generally a quarter of an Irish acre to each. On this the cottier put all the manure he could make by his pig, or the children could scrape off the road during the year, and "planted" his crop of potatoes, which he relied upon as almost the sole support of his family. On it he also fed the pig, which paid the rent, or procured249 clothes and other necessaries if he had been permitted to pay the rent with his own labour. The labourer thus became a commercial speculator in potatoes. He mortgaged his labour for part of the ensuing year for the rent of his field. If his speculation84 proved successful, he was able to replace his capital, to fatten251 his pig, and to support himself and his family, while he cleared off his debt to the farmer. If it failed, his former savings252 were gone, his heap of manure had been expended253 to no purpose, and he had lost the means of rendering254 his pig fit for the market. But his debt to the farmer still remained, and the scanty255 wages which he could earn at some periods of the year were reduced, not only by the increased number of persons looking for work, but also by the diminished ability of the farmers to employ them. Speculation in potatoes, whether on a large or small scale, had always been hazardous256 in the southern and westerly portions of Ireland. There had been famines from the failure of that crop at various times, and a remarkably257 severe one in 1822, when Parliament voted £300,000 for public works and other relief purposes, and subscriptions258 were raised to the amount of £310,000, of which £44,000 was collected in Ireland. In 1831 violent storms and continual rain brought on another failure of the potato crop in the west of Ireland, particularly along the coast of Galway, Mayo, and Donegal. On this occasion the English public, with ready sympathy, again came forward, and subscriptions were raised, amounting to about[537] £75,000. On several other occasions subsequently, the Government found it necessary to advance money for the relief of Irish misery, invariably occasioned by the failure of the potatoes, and followed by distress259 and disease. The public and the Legislature had therefore repeated warnings of the danger of having millions of people dependent for existence upon so precarious a crop.
FATHER MATHEW AND THE FAMINE-STRICKEN POOR. (See p. 537.)
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In the year 1845 marked symptoms appeared of the approaching total failure of the national food. The early crop had been saved, but throughout the whole country the late crop was lost. As, however, the grain crop was abundant, the loss was not so severely260 felt. But the Government were so alarmed that they appointed a commission, consisting of Professors Kane, Lindley, and Playfair, eminent261 chemists, to inquire into the cause of the failure; but all their skill was unavailing to discover the nature of the mysterious agency by which the destruction was effected. The farmers and peasantry were not deterred262 from putting in an abundant crop of potatoes next year. In the beginning of the season the crops seemed in excellent condition, and there was every prospect of a plentiful263 harvest; but suddenly the blight264 came, as if the crop had been everywhere smitten265 with lightning, or a withering266 blast had swept over the whole country. "On the 27th of July," said Father Mathew, "I passed from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed267 plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest. Returning on the 3rd of August, I beheld268 one wide waste of putrefying vegetation. In many places the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing269 their hands and bewailing bitterly the destruction that had left them foodless." First a brown spot appeared on the leaf; the spots gradually increased in number and size until the foliage270 withered271, the stem became brittle272, and snapped off immediately when touched. In less than a week the whole process of destruction was accomplished273. The fields assumed a blackened appearance; the roots were like pigeons' eggs, which gradually rotted away, and were wholly unfit for food. In one week the chief support of the masses was utterly lost.
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For a few weeks the cottiers and small farmers managed to eke274 out a subsistence by the sale of their pigs, and any little effects they had. But pigs, fowls275, furniture, and clothing soon went, one after another, to satisfy the cravings of hunger. The better class of farmers lived upon their corn and cattle; but they were obliged to dismiss their servants, and this numerous class became the first victims of starvation; for when they were turned off, they were refused admission by their relations, who had not the means of feeding them. Tailors, shoemakers, and other artisans who worked for the lower classes, lost their employment and became destitute276 also. While the means of support failed upon every side, and food rose to such enormous prices that everything that could possibly be eaten was economised, so that the starving dogs were drowned from compassion277, the famine steadily278 advanced from the west and south to the east and north, till it involved the whole population in its crushing grasp. It was painfully interesting to mark the progress of the visitation, even in those parts of the country where its ravages279 were least felt. The small farmer had only his corn, designed for rent and seed. He was obliged to take it to the mill, to ward54 off starvation. The children of the poor, placed on short allowance, were suffering fearfully from hunger. Mothers, heart-broken and worn down to skeletons, were seen on certain days proceeding142 in groups to some distant dep?t, where Indian meal was to be had at reduced prices, but still double that of the ordinary market. As they returned to their children with their little bags on their heads, a faint joy lit up their famine-stricken features. Those children, who had lived for two days and two nights on a dole280 of raw turnips281, would now be relieved by a morsel282 of nourishing food. The fathers, who had absented themselves from home in order to avoid the agony of listening to their heart-piercing cries, might now sit down and look their little ones in the face. But, if the mother failed to obtain the relief for which she had travelled so far, what then? Yesterday no breakfast, no dinner, no supper; the same to-day; no prospect of better to-morrow. The destitute rushed to the workhouses, which soon became crowded to excess by those who had been able-bodied men and women, while the aged239, the sickly, and the children were left to starve. Overpowered by hunger, they lay down helpless, the ready victims of the pestilence283 that walked close upon the footsteps of famine, and died in thousands. Let us consider the state of a population such as has been described. Scattered over remote districts, with no gentry resident within many miles, none to whom a complaint could be made but the clergyman, whose energies were overtaxed, how utterly helpless must have been the condition of those doomed people!
A few sketches284 of the state of the population given by the agents of the Relief Committee of the Society of Friends, who exerted themselves nobly in relieving the distress, may help to give us a more vivid impression of the horrors of the famine. At Boyle they found numbers that had eaten nothing but cabbages or turnips for weeks. The children were in a condition of starvation, ravenous285 with hunger. At Carrick-on-Shannon a most painful and heartrending scene presented itself: poor wretches286 in the last stage of famine, imploring287 to be received into the house; women that had six or seven children begging that even two or three of them might be taken in, as their husbands were earning but eightpence a day. Famine was written in their faces. On bread being given to some of these poor creatures, many of them devoured288 it with ravenous voracity289. But the mothers restrained themselves, and carried home portions to their children. The famine produced a peculiar effect on the appearance of the young. Their faces looked wan53 and haggard, seeming like old men and women, with an extraordinary sharpness of expression; they had lost all their natural sprightliness290, making no attempt to play. In the crowded workhouses their bedding consisted of dirty straw, in which they were laid in rows on the floor, even as many as six persons being crowded under one rug—the living and the dying stretched side by side beneath the same miserable291 covering. The town of Westport was in itself a strange and fearful sight, like what we read of in beleaguered292 cities; its streets crowded with gaunt wanderers, sauntering to and fro with hopeless air and hunger-struck appearance; a mob of starved, almost naked women around the poor-house, clamouring for soup-tickets.
When the visitors entered a village, their first question was, "How many deaths?" "The hunger is upon us," was everywhere the cry; and involuntarily they found themselves regarding this hunger as they would an epidemic293, looking upon starvation as a disease. In fact, as they passed along, their wonder was, not that the people died, but that they lived; and Mr. W. E. Forster, in his report, said, "I have no doubt whatever that in any other country the mortality would have been far greater; and that many lives have been[539] prolonged, perhaps saved, by the long apprenticeship294 to want in which the Irish peasant has been trained, and by that lovely, touching295 charity which prompts him to share his scanty meal with his starving neighbour. But the springs of this charity must be rapidly dried up. Like a scourge296 of locusts297, the hunger daily sweeps over fresh districts, eating up all before it. One class after another is falling into the same abyss of ruin."
One of the most appalling298 of the narratives299 sent to the Central Committee of the Society of Friends was Mr. William Bennet's account of his journey in Ireland. He left Dublin on the 12th of January, and proceeded by coach to Longford, and thence to Ballina, from which he penetrated300 into remote districts of the county Mayo. In the neighbourhood of Belmullet he and his companion visited a district which may serve as a representation of the condition of the labouring class generally in the mountainous and boggy301 districts, where they burrowed303 and multiplied, more like a race of inferior animals than human beings. "Many of the cabins," wrote Mr. Bennet, "were holes in the bog302, covered with a layer of turf, and not distinguishable as human habitations from the surrounding moors304, until close down upon them. The bare sod was about the best material of which any of them were constructed. Doorways305, not doors, were provided at both sides of the latter, mostly back and front, to take advantage of the way of the wind. Windows and chimneys, I think, had no existence. A second apartment or partition of any kind was exceedingly rare. Furniture properly so called, I believe, may be stated at nil306. I cannot speak with certainty, and wish not to speak with exaggeration, we were too much overcome to note specifically; but as far as memory serves, we saw neither bed, chair, nor table at all. A chest, a few iron or earthen vessels307, a stool or two, the dirty rags and night coverings, formed about the sum total of the best-furnished. Outside many were all but unapproachable from the mud and filth308 surrounding them; the scene inside is worse, if possible, from the added closeness, darkness, and smoke.... And now language utterly fails me in attempting to depict309 the state of the wretched inmates310.... We entered a cabin. Stretched in one dark corner, scarcely visible from the smoke and rags that covered them, were three children huddled311 together, lying there because they were too weak to rise, pale and ghastly; their little limbs, on removing a portion of the covering, perfectly emaciated312; eyes sunk, voice gone, and evidently in the last stage of actual starvation. Crouched313 over the turf embers was another form, wild and all but naked, scarcely human in appearance. It stirred not nor noticed us. On some straw, soddened314 upon the ground, moaning piteously, was a shrivelled old woman, imploring us to give her something, baring her limbs partly to show how the skin hung loose from her bones, as soon as she attracted our attention. Above her, on something like a ledge31, was a young woman with sunken cheeks, a mother, I have no doubt, who scarcely raised her eyes in answer to our inquiries315; but pressed her hand upon her forehead, with a look of unutterable anguish316 and despair.... Every infantile expression had entirely317 departed; and, in some, reason and intelligence had evidently flown. Many were remnants of families, crowded together in one cabin; orphaned318 little relatives taken in by the equally destitute, and even strangers—for these poor people are kind to each other, even to the end. In one cabin was a sister, just dying, lying beside her little brother, just dead. I have worse than this to relate; but it is useless to multiply details, and they are, in fact, unfit."
It was not only in the wild and dreary319 west, always the most neglected part of Ireland, without resident gentry, without a middle class, without manufacturers, and almost without towns, that the desolating320 effects of the famine were felt. In Ulster, even in the best counties and most thriving manufacturing districts, where the people were intensely industrious321, orderly, and thrifty322, some of its worst horrors were endured. In the county of Armagh, where the very small farmers kept themselves in comfort by weaving linen323 in their own houses, they were obliged to work their looms324 by night as well as by day in order to keep hunger from their homes. They worked till, by exhaustion325 and want of sleep, they were compelled to lie down. Many of them were obliged to sell or pawn326 all their clothes. In many cases, and as a last resource, those stout-hearted Presbyterians had to sell their Bibles in order to purchase a meal of food for their children. A clergyman of the Church of England in that county wrote to the Committee of the Society of Friends that he had seen the living lying on straw by the side of the unburied dead, who had died three days before. Not only the aged and infirm, not only women and children, but strong men, he had known to pine away till they died of actual starvation. Strong, healthy girls became so emaciated that they could not stand or move a limb. He visited[540] houses, once comfortable homes, in which not an article of furniture remained. The poor-house of Lurgan was shut. Seventy-five persons died there in one day. In Armagh poor-house forty-five died weekly. The poor-houses became pest-houses, which sent forth the miasma327 of death into every parish, already full of dysentery and fever. The congregations in the various churches were reduced to almost nothing. Deaths occurred so rapidly that the Roman Catholic priest ceased to attend funerals in his graveyard328. The most deplorable accounts came from Cork, and especially from Skibbereen, a remote district of that county. In December, 1846, Father Mathew wrote to Mr. Trevelyan, then Secretary of the Treasury329, that men, women, and children were gradually wasting away. They filled their stomachs with cabbage-leaves, turnip-tops, etc., to appease330 the cravings of hunger. There were then more than 5,000 half-starved wretches from the country begging in the streets of Cork. When utterly exhausted331 they crawled to the workhouse to die. The average of deaths in that union were then over 100 a week. At Crookhaven the daily average of deaths was from ten to twelve; and as early as the first Sunday in September a collection was made to purchase a public bier, on which to take the coffinless dead to the grave, the means to procure250 coffins333 being utterly exhausted in that locality. Earlier still in Skibbereen numerous cases had occurred of the dead being kept for several days above ground for want of coffins. In some cases they were buried in the rags in which they died. Throughout the entire west of the county of Cork it was a common occurrence to see from ten to a dozen funerals in the course of the day during the close of 1846.
FATHER MATHEW.
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Mr. J. F. Maguire, who writes as an eye-witness of the scenes he describes, referring to the spring of 1847, says:—"The famine now raged in every[541] part of the afflicted country, and starving multitudes crowded the thoroughfares of the cities and large towns. Death was everywhere—in the cabin, on the highway, in the garret, in the cellar, and even on the flags or side-paths of the most public streets of the city. In the workhouses, to which the pressure of absolute starvation alone drove the destitute, the carnage was frightful334. It was now increasing at prodigious335 pace. The number of deaths at the Cork workhouse in the last week of January, 1847, was 104. It increased to 128 in the first week in February, and in the second week of that month it reached 164; 396 in three weeks. During the month of April as many as thirty-six bodies were interred336 in one day in that portion of Father Mathew's cemetery337 reserved for the free burial of the poor; and this mortality was entirely independent of the mortality in the workhouse. During the same month there were 300 coffins sold in a single street in the course of a fortnight, and these were chiefly required for the supply of a single parish. From the 27th of December, in 1846, to the middle of April, in 1847, the number of human beings that died in the Cork workhouse was 2,130! And in the third week of the following month the free interments in the Mathew cemetery had risen to 277—as many as sixty-seven having been buried in one day. The destruction of human life in other workhouses of Ireland kept pace with the appalling mortality in the Cork workhouse. According to official returns, it had reached in April the weekly average of twenty-five per 1,000 inmates; the actual number of deaths being 2,706 for the week ending the 3rd of April, and 2,613 in the following week. Yet the number of inmates in the Irish workhouses was but 104,455 on the 10th of April, the entire of the houses not having then been completed.
ON BOARD AN EMIGRANT338 SHIP AT THE TIME OF THE IRISH FAMINE. (See p. 542.)
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"More than 100 workhouse officers fell victims to the famine fever during this fatal year, which also decimated the ranks of the Catholic clergy of the country. Mr. Trevelyan gives names of thirty English and Scottish priests who sacrificed their lives to their zealous340 attendance on the immigrant Irish, who carried the pestilence with them in their flight to other portions of the United Kingdom. Pestilence likewise slew341 its victims in the[542] fetid hold of the emigrant ship, and, following them across the ocean, immolated342 them in thousands in the lazar houses that fringed the shores of Canada and the United States. The principal business of the time was in meal, and coffins, and passenger ships. A fact may be mentioned which renders further description of the state of the country needless. The Cork Patent Saw Mills had been at full work from December, 1846, to May, 1847, with twenty pairs of saws, constantly going from morning till night, cutting planks343 for coffins, and planks and scantlings for fever sheds, and for the framework of berths344 for emigrant ships."
At the Church of St. Anne, Shandon, under a kind of shed attached to a guard-house, lay huddled up in their filthy345 fetid rags about forty human creatures—men, women, children, and infants of the tenderest age—starving and fever-stricken, most of them in a dying state, some dead, and all gaunt, yellow, hideous346 from the combined effects of famine and disease. Under this open shed they had remained during the night, and until that hour—about ten in the morning—when the funeral procession was passing by, and their indescribable misery was beheld by the leading citizens of Cork, including the mayor, and several members of the board of guardians347. The odour which proceeded from that huddled-up heap of human beings was of itself enough to generate a plague.
Skibbereen was described as "one mass of famine, disease, and death; the poor rapidly sinking under fever, dysentery, and starvation." There, as early as the first week in February, 1847, there was constant use for a coffin332 with movable sides, in which the dead were borne to the grave, and there dropped into their last resting-place. On the whole, the resignation of this stricken people was something wonderful. Outrage348 was rare, and the violations349 of the rights of property were not at all so numerous as might have been expected from persons rendered desperate by hunger; and where such things occurred, the depredators were not those who suffered the severest distress. But as the famine proceeded in its desolating course, and people became familiar with its horrors, the demoralising effects of which we have read in such visitations were exhibited in Ireland also. Next to the French, the Irish have been remarkable for their attention to the dead, as well as for the strength of their domestic affections. They had a decent pride in having a respectable "wake" and funeral when they lost any member of the family; and however great their privations were, they made an effort to spare something for the last sad tokens of respect for those they loved. But now there was no mourning for the dead, and but little attention paid to the dying. The ancient and deep-rooted custom with regard to funerals was "swept away like chaff350 before the wind." The funerals were rarely attended by more than three or four relatives or friends. Sometimes the work of burial was left entirely to persons hired to do it, and in many cases it was not done at all for five or six days after death, and then it was only by threats and rewards that any persons could be got to perform the dangerous duty.
The demoralisation appeared further in the abuses connected with the distribution of relief. The reports of the Commissioners have stated that, in those districts where the relief committees worked together with zeal339 and in good faith, the administration was excellent, checking fraud and imposture351, while it relieved the really distressed352. But in some districts this was unhappily not the case. Abuses existed, varying from apathy353 and neglect to connivance354 at frauds and misappropriation of the funds. Gross impositions were daily practised by the poor. The dead or absent were personated; children were lent for a few days in order to give the appearance of large families, and thus entitle the borrowers to a greater number of rations111. Almost the whole population, in many cases, alleged355 poverty and looked for relief; and then, conceiving the receipt of cooked food a degradation356, they endeavoured to compel the issue of raw meal. One universal spirit of mendicancy357 pervaded the people, to which in several places the committees offered no opposition358. Yielding to intimidation, or seeking for popularity, they were willing to place the whole population indiscriminately on the lists to be supported by public charity.
The Marquis of Lansdowne, the President of the Council in the Whig Ministry360 which had replaced that of Sir Robert Peel, in a speech delivered in the House of Lords on the 25th of January, 1847, gave an estimate, as accurate as the best calculation could make it, of the loss in money value that had been occasioned by the failure of the crops in Ireland. "Taking a valuation of £10 per acre for potatoes, and £3 10s. for oats, the deficiency on the potato crop alone amounted to £11,350,000, while on the crop of oats it amounted to £4,660,000, or to a total value of £16,010,000 for the whole of a country which, if it could not be said to be the poorest, was certainty not one of the richest in the world. In[543] weight the loss was 9,000,000 or 10,000,000 tons of potatoes. The whole loss had been equivalent to the absolute destruction of 1,500,000 arable361 acres." On the same day, Lord John Russell, who had succeeded Peel as Prime Minister, gave a statement of what the Government had done during the recess362 for the relief of the Irish population, in pursuance of Acts passed in the previous Session. He stated that an immense staff of servants had been employed by the Board of Public Works—upwards363 of 11,000 persons—giving employment to half a million of labourers, representing 2,000,000 of souls; the expense for the month of January being estimated at from £700,000 to £800,000.
It was proposed also to form, in certain districts, relief committees, which should be empowered to receive subscriptions, levy364 rates, and take charge of donations from the Government; and that out of the fund thus raised they should establish soup kitchens, and deliver rations to the famishing inhabitants. Sir John Burgoyne, Inspector-General of Fortifications, was appointed to superintend the works. Lord John Russell referred to measures for draining and reclaiming365 waste land in Ireland, and to advances of money for this purpose to the proprietors, to be repaid in instalments spread over a number of years. On a subsequent day, in answer to questions from Mr. Roebuck, the noble lord gave a statement of the sums that had already been advanced. £2,000,000 had been issued on account of the Poor Employment Act of the last Session. He expected that not less than £500,000 or £600,000 a month would be spent from the present time until August, and he calculated the whole expenditure366 would not be less than £7,000,000. There was great difference of opinion on the subject of the Government plans. A counter-scheme for the establishment of reproductive works deserves to be noticed for the interest it excited and the attention it occupied for years afterwards—namely, the railway plan of Lord George Bentinck. Acts of Parliament, he said, had been passed for 1,582 miles of railway in Ireland, of which only 123 miles had then been completed, while 2,600 miles had been completed in England. In order to encourage the formation of Irish railways, therefore, he proposed that for every £100 expended by the companies £200 should be lent by the Government at the same interest at which they borrowed the money, Mr. Hudson, who was "chairman of 1,700 miles of railroad," pledging his credit that the Government would not lose a shilling by the transaction. By adopting this plan they could give reproductive employment to 109,000 men in different parts of the country, for earth-works, fences, drains, and watercourses connected with the lines. This would give support of 550,000 souls on useful work, tend to develop the resources of the country, and produce such improvement that the railways constructed would add £23,000,000 to the value of landed property in twenty-five years, and would pay £22,500 a year to the poor rates. The purchase of land for the railways would moreover place £1,250,000 in the hands of Irish proprietors, for the employment of fresh labour, and £240,000 in the hands of the occupying tenants for their own purposes. The Government also would reap from the expenditure of £24,000,000 on railways in Ireland, an enormous increase of revenue in the augmented367 consumption of articles of excise368 and customs. The noble lord's speech, which lasted two hours and a half, was received with cheers from both sides of the House. Leave was given to bring in the Bill, though it was strongly objected to by Lord John Russell, Mr. Labouchere, and other members of the Government. It was also opposed by Sir Robert Peel, who exposed the unsoundness of the economic principles involved in it. The Bill was rejected by a majority of 204, the numbers being 118 for the second reading, and 322 against it. Notwithstanding this decision, loans were subsequently advanced to certain Irish railways, amounting to £620,000, so that the objection of the Government was more to the extent than to the principle of Lord George Bentinck's measure.
As in the whole history of the world, perhaps, so great a calamity369 as the Irish famine never called for sympathy and relief, so never was a more generous response elicited370 by any appeal to humanity. The Government and the Legislature did all that was possible with the means at their disposal, and the machinery371 that already existed, or could be hastily constructed, to meet the overwhelming emergency. The newly established Poor Law system, though useful as far as it went, was quite inadequate372 to meet such great distress. It had been passed while the country was comparatively prosperous, and contained no provision for such a social disorganisation as this famine. By the Acts of 1 and 2 Victoria, c. 56, no outdoor relief whatever could be given in any circumstances. The size of the unions was also a great impediment to the working of the Poor Law. They were three times the extent of the corresponding divisions in England. In Munster and[544] Connaught, where there was the greatest amount of destitution373 and the least amount of local agency available for its relief, the unions were much larger than in the more favoured provinces of Ulster and Leinster. The union of Ballina comprised a region of upwards of half a million acres, and within its desert tracts374 the famine assumed its most appalling form, the workhouse being more than forty miles distant from some of the sufferers. As a measure of precaution, the Government had secretly imported and stored a large quantity of Indian corn, as a cheap substitute for the potato, which would have served the purpose much better had the people been instructed in the best modes of cooking it. It was placed in commissariat dep?ts along the western coast of the island, where the people were not likely to be supplied on reasonable terms through the ordinary channels of trade. The public works consisted principally of roads, on which the people were employed as a sort of supplement to the Poor Law. Half the cost was a free grant from the Treasury, and the other half was charged upon the barony in which the works were undertaken. The expense incurred375 under the Labour Rate Act, 9 and 10 Victoria, c. 107," amounted to £4,766,789. It was almost universally admitted, when the pressure was over, that the system of public works adopted was a great mistake; and it seems wonderful that such grievous blunders could have been made with so many able statesmen and political economists376 at the head of affairs and in the service of the Government. The public works undertaken consisted in the breaking up of good roads to level hills and fill hollows, and the opening of new roads in places where they were not required—work which the people felt to be useless, and which they performed only under strong compulsion, being obliged to walk to them in all weathers for miles, in order to earn the price of a breakfast of Indian meal. Had the labour thus comparatively wasted been devoted to the draining, subsoiling, and fencing of the farms, connected with a comprehensive system of arterial drainage, immense and lasting40 benefit to the country would have been the result, especially as works so well calculated to ameliorate the soil and guard against the moisture of the climate might have been connected with a system of instruction in agricultural matters of which the peasantry stood so much in need, and to the removal of the gross ignorance which had so largely contributed to bring about the famine. As it was, enormous sums were wasted. Much needless hardship was inflicted377 on the starving people in compelling them to work in frost and rain when they were scarcely able to walk, and, after all the vast outlay378, very few traces of it remained in permanent improvements on the face of the country. The system of Government relief works failed chiefly through the same difficulty which impedes379 every mode of relief, whether public or private—namely, the want of machinery to work it. It was impossible suddenly to procure an efficient staff of officers for an undertaking380 of such enormous magnitude—the employment of a whole people. The overseers were necessarily selected in haste; many of them were corrupt, and encouraged the misconduct of the labourers. In many cases the relief committees, unable to prevent maladministration, yielded to the torrent381 of corruption382, and individual members only sought to benefit their own dependents. The people everywhere flocked to the public works; labourers, cottiers, artisans, fishermen, farmers, men, women, and children—all, whether destitute or not, sought for a share of the public money. In such a crowd it was almost impossible to discriminate359 properly. They congregated383 in masses on the roads, idling under the name of work, the really destitute often unheeded and unrelieved because they had no friend to recommend them. All the ordinary employments were neglected; there was no fishing, no gathering384 of seaweed, no collecting of manure. The men who had employment feared to lose it by absenting themselves for any other object; those unemployed385 spent their time in seeking to obtain it. The whole industry of the country seemed to be engaged in road-making. It became absolutely necessary to put an end to it, or the cultivation386 of the land would be neglected. Works undertaken on the spur of the moment—not because they were needful, but merely to employ the people—were in many cases ill-chosen, and the execution equally defective. The workers, desirous to protect their employment, were only anxious to give as little labour as possible, in which their overlookers or gangers in many cases heartily387 agreed. The favouritism, the intimidation, the wholesale388 jobbing practised in many cases were shockingly demoralising. The problem was to support 2,000,000 or 3,000,000 of destitute persons, and this was in a great measure effected, though at an enormous cost to the empire.
[545]
FIGHTING AT THE BARRICADES389 IN PARIS. (See p. 551.)
[See larger version]
The following statement of the numbers receiving rations, and the total expenditure under the Act in each of the four provinces, compared with the amount of population, and the annual value assessed for poor-rate, may serve to illustrate390 the[546] comparative means and destitution of each province:—
Population. Valuation. Greatest number
of rations
given out. Total
Expenditure.
Ulster 2,386,373 £3,320,133 346,517 £170,598
Leinster 1,973,731 4,624,542 450,606 308,068
Munster 2,396,161 3,777,103 1,013,826 671,554
Connaught 1,418,859 1,465,643 745,652 526,048
8,175,124 £13,187,421 2,556,601 £1,676,268
In order to induce the people to attend to their ordinary spring work, and put in the crops, it was found necessary to adopt the plan of distributing free rations. On the 20th of March, therefore, a reduction of twenty per cent. of the numbers employed on the works took place, and the process of reduction went on until the new system of gratuitous391 relief was brought into full operation. The authority under which this was administered was called the "Temporary Relief Act," which came into full operation in the month of July, when the destitution was at its height, and three millions of people received their daily rations. Sir John Burgoyne truly described this as "the grandest attempt ever made to grapple with famine over a whole country." Never in the history of the world were so many persons fed in such a manner by the public bounty392. It was a most anxious time—a time of tremendous labour and responsibility to those who had the direction of this vast machinery. This great multitude was, however, rapidly lessened393 at the approach of harvest, which happily was not affected by the disease. Food became comparatively abundant, and labour in demand. By the middle of August relief was discontinued in nearly one half of the unions, and ceased altogether on September 12th. It was limited by the Act to the 1st of October. This was the second year in which upwards of 3,000,000 of people had been fed out of the hands of the magistrates in Ireland; but it was now done more effectually than at first. Organised armies, it was said, had been rationed394 before; but neither ancient nor modern history can furnish a parallel to the fact that upwards of three millions of persons were fed every day in the neighbourhood of their own homes, by administrative395 arrangements emanating396 from, and controlled by, one central office. The expense of this great undertaking amounted to £1,559,212—a moderate sum in comparison with the extent of the service performed, and in which performance the machinery of the Poor Law unions was found to afford most important aid. Indeed, without such aid the service could hardly have been performed at all; and the anticipations397 of the advantages to be derived398 from the Poor Law organisation in such emergencies were fully verified.
The relief committees were also authorised to adopt measures to avert399 or mitigate400 the famine fever, which had prevailed to an awful extent. They were to provide temporary hospitals, to ventilate and cleanse401 cabins, to remove nuisances, and procure the proper burial of the dead, the funds necessary for these objects being advanced by the Government in the same way as for furnishing food. Upwards of 300 hospitals and dispensaries were provided under the Act, with accommodation for at least 23,000 patients, and the sanitary402 powers which it conferred were extensively acted upon. The expense incurred for these objects amounted to £119,000, the whole of which was made a free gift to the unions in aid of the rates. The entire amount advanced by the Government in 1846 and 1847 towards the relief of the Irish people under the fearful calamity to which they were exposed was £7,132,286, of which one half was to be repaid within ten years, and the rest was a free grant.
The clergy, Protestant and Roman Catholic, almost the only resident gentry in several of the destitute districts, worked together on the committees with commendable403 zeal, diligence, and unanimity404. Among the Roman Catholic clergy, Father Mathew was at that time by far the most influential405 and popular. The masses of the peasantry regarded him as almost an inspired apostle. During the famine months he exerted himself with wonderful energy and prudence406, first, in his correspondence with different members of the Government, earnestly recommending and urging the speedy adoption407 of measures of relief; and next in commending those measures to the people, dissuading408 the hungry from acts of violence, and preaching submission409 and resignation under the heavy dispensation of Providence. If the temperance organisation established by Father Mathew had been perverted410 to political purposes by the Repeal agitation, there is no doubt that it contributed in a very large degree to the preservation411 of life and property during the two awfully412 trying years of famine. "It is a fact," said Father Mathew—"and you are not to attribute my alluding413 to it to vanity—that the late provision riots have occurred in the districts where the temperance movement has not been encouraged. Our people are as harmless in their meetings as flocks of sheep, unless when inflamed414 and maddened by intoxicating drink. Were it not for the temperate[547] habits of the greater portion of the people of Ireland, our unhappy country would be before now one wide scene of tumult46 and bloodshed."
The consumption of Indian corn during the famine caused a great deal of wild speculation in the corn trade. Splendid fortunes were rapidly made, and as rapidly lost. The price of Indian corn in the middle of February, 1847, was £19 per ton; at the end of March it was £13; and by the end of August it had fallen to £7 10s. The quantity of corn imported into Ireland in the first six months was 2,849,508 tons.
The action of private benevolence was on a scale proportioned to the vast exertions415 of the Government. It is quite impossible to estimate the amount of money contributed by the public for the relief of Irish distress. We know what sums were received by associations and committees; but great numbers sent their money directly, in answer to appeals from clergymen and others, to meet demands for relief in their respective localities. In this way we may easily suppose that abuses were committed, and that much of the money received was misappropriated, although the greater portion of it was honestly dispensed416. Among the organisations established for raising contributions, the greatest was the British Relief Association, which had for its chairman and vice-chairman two of our merchant princes—Mr. Jones Loyd, afterwards Lord Overstone, and Mr. Thomas Baring. The amount of subscriptions collected by this association, "for the relief of extreme distress in Ireland and Scotland," was £269,302. The Queen's letters were issued for collections in the churches throughout England and Wales, and these produced £200,738, which was also entrusted417 to the British Relief Association. These sums made together no less than £470,040, which was dispensed in relief by one central committee. One-sixth of the amount was apportioned418 to the Highlands of Scotland, where there was extensive destitution, and the rest to Ireland. In fact, the amount applied419 to these objects by the association exceeded half a million sterling420, for upwards of £130,000 had been obtained by the sale of provisions and seed corn in Ireland, and by interest accruing421 on the money contributed. In administering the funds placed at their disposal, the committee acted concurrently422 with the Government and the Poor Law authorities. It wisely determined at the outset that all grants should be in food, and not in money; and that no grant should be placed at the disposal of any individual for private distribution. The committee concluded their report to the subscribers by declaring that although evils of greater or less degree must attend every system of gratuitous relief, they were confident that any evils that might have accompanied the application of the funds would have been far more than counterbalanced by the benefits that had been conferred upon their starving fellow-countrymen, and that if ill-desert had sometimes participated in their bounty, a vast amount of human misery and suffering had been relieved.
But the chief source whence the means at their disposal were derived was the magnificent bounty of the citizens of the United States of America. The supplies sent from America to Ireland were on a scale unparalleled in history. Meetings were held in Philadelphia, Washington, New York, and other cities in quick succession, presided over by the first men in the country. All through the States the citizens evinced an intense interest, and a noble generosity423, worthy424 of the great Republic. The railway companies carried free of charge all packages marked "Ireland." Public carriers undertook the gratuitous delivery of packages intended for the relief of Irish distress. Storage to any extent was offered on the same terms. Ships of war, without their guns, came to the Irish shores on a mission of peace and mercy, freighted with food for British subjects. Cargo425 after cargo followed in rapid succession, until nearly 100 separate shipments had arrived, our Government having consented to pay the freight of all donations of food forwarded from America, which amounted in the whole to £33,000. The quantity of American food consigned426 to the care of the Society of Friends was nearly ten thousand tons, the value of which was about £100,000. In addition to all this, the Americans remitted427 to the Friends' Committee £16,000 in money. They also sent 642 packages of clothing, the precise value of which could not be ascertained429. There was a very large amount of remittances430 sent to Ireland during the famine by the Irish in the United States. Unfortunately, there are no records of those remittances prior to 1848; but after that time we are enabled to ascertain428 a large portion of them, though not the whole, and their amount is something astonishing. The following statement of sums remitted by emigrants431 in America to their families in Ireland was printed by order of Parliament:—During the years 1848, £460,180; 1849, £540,619; 1850, £957,087; 1851, £990,811.
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1 repeal | |
n.废止,撤消;v.废止,撤消 | |
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2 agitation | |
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58 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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59 depressed | |
adj.沮丧的,抑郁的,不景气的,萧条的 | |
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60 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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61 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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62 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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63 rampant | |
adj.(植物)蔓生的;狂暴的,无约束的 | |
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64 breaches | |
破坏( breach的名词复数 ); 破裂; 缺口; 违背 | |
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65 subscribing | |
v.捐助( subscribe的现在分词 );签署,题词;订阅;同意 | |
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66 overthrow | |
v.推翻,打倒,颠覆;n.推翻,瓦解,颠覆 | |
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67 conspiracy | |
n.阴谋,密谋,共谋 | |
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68 deteriorating | |
恶化,变坏( deteriorate的现在分词 ) | |
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69 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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70 redress | |
n.赔偿,救济,矫正;v.纠正,匡正,革除 | |
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71 grievances | |
n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 );苦衷;不满;牢骚 | |
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72 impartial | |
adj.(in,to)公正的,无偏见的 | |
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73 honourable | |
adj.可敬的;荣誉的,光荣的 | |
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74 taxation | |
n.征税,税收,税金 | |
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75 hierarchy | |
n.等级制度;统治集团,领导层 | |
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76 tenure | |
n.终身职位;任期;(土地)保有权,保有期 | |
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77 vexed | |
adj.争论不休的;(指问题等)棘手的;争论不休的问题;烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 );使苦恼;使生气;详细讨论 | |
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78 abatement | |
n.减(免)税,打折扣,冲销 | |
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79 tranquillity | |
n. 平静, 安静 | |
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80 redundant | |
adj.多余的,过剩的;(食物)丰富的;被解雇的 | |
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81 superfluous | |
adj.过多的,过剩的,多余的 | |
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82 precarious | |
adj.不安定的,靠不住的;根据不足的 | |
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83 speculations | |
n.投机买卖( speculation的名词复数 );思考;投机活动;推断 | |
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84 speculation | |
n.思索,沉思;猜测;投机 | |
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85 assent | |
v.批准,认可;n.批准,认可 | |
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86 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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87 persevering | |
a.坚忍不拔的 | |
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88 attainment | |
n.达到,到达;[常pl.]成就,造诣 | |
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89 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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90 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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91 inviolate | |
adj.未亵渎的,未受侵犯的 | |
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92 retards | |
使减速( retard的第三人称单数 ); 妨碍; 阻止; 推迟 | |
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93 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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94 exasperated | |
adj.恼怒的 | |
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95 binding | |
有约束力的,有效的,应遵守的 | |
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96 obligatory | |
adj.强制性的,义务的,必须的 | |
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97 franchise | |
n.特许,特权,专营权,特许权 | |
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98 suffrage | |
n.投票,选举权,参政权 | |
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99 ballot | |
n.(不记名)投票,投票总数,投票权;vi.投票 | |
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100 arbitration | |
n.调停,仲裁 | |
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101 superseding | |
取代,接替( supersede的现在分词 ) | |
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102 forsaking | |
放弃( forsake的现在分词 ); 弃绝; 抛弃; 摒弃 | |
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103 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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104 intoxicating | |
a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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105 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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106 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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107 ornamented | |
adj.花式字体的v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108 imposing | |
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的 | |
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109 demonstration | |
n.表明,示范,论证,示威 | |
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110 demonstrations | |
证明( demonstration的名词复数 ); 表明; 表达; 游行示威 | |
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111 rations | |
定量( ration的名词复数 ); 配给量; 正常量; 合理的量 | |
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112 tenant | |
n.承租人;房客;佃户;v.租借,租用 | |
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113 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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114 alterations | |
n.改动( alteration的名词复数 );更改;变化;改变 | |
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115 intimidation | |
n.恐吓,威胁 | |
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116 factious | |
adj.好搞宗派活动的,派系的,好争论的 | |
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117 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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118 prosecuted | |
a.被起诉的 | |
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119 garrisoned | |
卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 ); 派部队驻防 | |
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120 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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121 infantry | |
n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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122 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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123 cavalry | |
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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124 cartridge | |
n.弹壳,弹药筒;(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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125 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
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126 appalled | |
v.使惊骇,使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的;丧胆的 | |
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127 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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128 deluded | |
v.欺骗,哄骗( delude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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129 amicable | |
adj.和平的,友好的;友善的 | |
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130 tardily | |
adv.缓慢 | |
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131 prosecution | |
n.起诉,告发,检举,执行,经营 | |
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132 sedition | |
n.煽动叛乱 | |
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133 proprietor | |
n.所有人;业主;经营者 | |
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134 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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135 obnoxious | |
adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的 | |
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136 conciliation | |
n.调解,调停 | |
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137 prosecutions | |
起诉( prosecution的名词复数 ); 原告; 实施; 从事 | |
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138 pervaded | |
v.遍及,弥漫( pervade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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139 defective | |
adj.有毛病的,有问题的,有瑕疵的 | |
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140 avowedly | |
adv.公然地 | |
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141 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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142 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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143 herald | |
vt.预示...的来临,预告,宣布,欢迎 | |
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144 orations | |
n.(正式仪式中的)演说,演讲( oration的名词复数 ) | |
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145 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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146 refreshment | |
n.恢复,精神爽快,提神之事物;(复数)refreshments:点心,茶点 | |
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147 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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148 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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149 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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150 allotted | |
分配,拨给,摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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151 restriction | |
n.限制,约束 | |
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152 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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153 condemning | |
v.(通常因道义上的原因而)谴责( condemn的现在分词 );宣判;宣布…不能使用;迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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154 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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155 tampering | |
v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 );篡改;(用不正当手段)影响;瞎摆弄 | |
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156 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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157 pier | |
n.码头;桥墩,桥柱;[建]窗间壁,支柱 | |
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158 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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159 inscription | |
n.(尤指石块上的)刻印文字,铭文,碑文 | |
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160 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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161 ascend | |
vi.渐渐上升,升高;vt.攀登,登上 | |
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162 exulting | |
vi. 欢欣鼓舞,狂喜 | |
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163 deafening | |
adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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164 spoke | |
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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165 defiled | |
v.玷污( defile的过去式和过去分词 );污染;弄脏;纵列行进 | |
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166 bray | |
n.驴叫声, 喇叭声;v.驴叫 | |
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167 metropolis | |
n.首府;大城市 | |
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168 wardens | |
n.看守人( warden的名词复数 );管理员;监察员;监察官 | |
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169 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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170 emblems | |
n.象征,标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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171 liberator | |
解放者 | |
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172 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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173 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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174 metropolitan | |
adj.大城市的,大都会的 | |
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175 crimson | |
n./adj.深(绯)红色(的);vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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176 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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177 martyrs | |
n.martyr的复数形式;烈士( martyr的名词复数 );殉道者;殉教者;乞怜者(向人诉苦以博取同情) | |
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178 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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179 imprisonment | |
n.关押,监禁,坐牢 | |
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180 wield | |
vt.行使,运用,支配;挥,使用(武器等) | |
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181 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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182 morbid | |
adj.病的;致病的;病态的;可怕的 | |
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183 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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184 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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185 yoke | |
n.轭;支配;v.给...上轭,连接,使成配偶 | |
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186 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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187 orators | |
n.演说者,演讲家( orator的名词复数 ) | |
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188 utterance | |
n.用言语表达,话语,言语 | |
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189 martial | |
adj.战争的,军事的,尚武的,威武的 | |
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190 promptly | |
adv.及时地,敏捷地 | |
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191 mortification | |
n.耻辱,屈辱 | |
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192 diligently | |
ad.industriously;carefully | |
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193 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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194 refractory | |
adj.倔强的,难驾驭的 | |
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195 perversity | |
n.任性;刚愎自用 | |
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196 abjure | |
v.发誓放弃 | |
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197 redressing | |
v.改正( redress的现在分词 );重加权衡;恢复平衡 | |
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198 rupture | |
n.破裂;(关系的)决裂;v.(使)破裂 | |
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199 seceded | |
v.脱离,退出( secede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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200 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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201 potent | |
adj.强有力的,有权势的;有效力的 | |
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202 consummate | |
adj.完美的;v.成婚;使完美 [反]baffle | |
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203 pending | |
prep.直到,等待…期间;adj.待定的;迫近的 | |
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204 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
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205 maligned | |
vt.污蔑,诽谤(malign的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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206 agitator | |
n.鼓动者;搅拌器 | |
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207 condemnatory | |
adj. 非难的,处罚的 | |
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208 subside | |
vi.平静,平息;下沉,塌陷,沉降 | |
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209 mingling | |
adj.混合的 | |
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210 auspicious | |
adj.吉利的;幸运的,吉兆的 | |
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211 denominations | |
n.宗派( denomination的名词复数 );教派;面额;名称 | |
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212 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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213 dishonour | |
n./vt.拒付(支票、汇票、票据等);vt.凌辱,使丢脸;n.不名誉,耻辱,不光彩 | |
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214 calamities | |
n.灾祸,灾难( calamity的名词复数 );不幸之事 | |
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215 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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216 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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217 chronic | |
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的 | |
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218 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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219 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
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220 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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221 census | |
n.(官方的)人口调查,人口普查 | |
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222 commissioners | |
n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 );长官;委员;政府部门的长官 | |
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223 contemplated | |
adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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224 diffusing | |
(使光)模糊,漫射,漫散( diffuse的现在分词 ); (使)扩散; (使)弥漫; (使)传播 | |
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225 authentic | |
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
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226 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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227 intercourse | |
n.性交;交流,交往,交际 | |
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228 counteracting | |
对抗,抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
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229 promotion | |
n.提升,晋级;促销,宣传 | |
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230 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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231 gild | |
vt.给…镀金,把…漆成金色,使呈金色 | |
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232 eminences | |
卓越( eminence的名词复数 ); 著名; 高地; 山丘 | |
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233 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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234 proprietors | |
n.所有人,业主( proprietor的名词复数 ) | |
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235 encumbered | |
v.妨碍,阻碍,拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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236 sublet | |
v.转租;分租 | |
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237 tenants | |
n.房客( tenant的名词复数 );佃户;占用者;占有者 | |
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238 deriving | |
v.得到( derive的现在分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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239 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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240 subletting | |
v.转租( sublet的现在分词 ) | |
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241 ingenuity | |
n.别出心裁;善于发明创造 | |
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242 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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243 tenement | |
n.公寓;房屋 | |
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244 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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245 depredations | |
n.劫掠,毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
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246 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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247 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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248 manure | |
n.粪,肥,肥粒;vt.施肥 | |
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249 procured | |
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条 | |
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250 procure | |
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
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251 fatten | |
v.使肥,变肥 | |
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252 savings | |
n.存款,储蓄 | |
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253 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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254 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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255 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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256 hazardous | |
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的 | |
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257 remarkably | |
ad.不同寻常地,相当地 | |
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258 subscriptions | |
n.(报刊等的)订阅费( subscription的名词复数 );捐款;(俱乐部的)会员费;捐助 | |
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259 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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260 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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261 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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262 deterred | |
v.阻止,制止( deter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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263 plentiful | |
adj.富裕的,丰富的 | |
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264 blight | |
n.枯萎病;造成破坏的因素;vt.破坏,摧残 | |
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265 smitten | |
猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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266 withering | |
使人畏缩的,使人害羞的,使人难堪的 | |
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267 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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268 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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269 wringing | |
淋湿的,湿透的 | |
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270 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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271 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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272 brittle | |
adj.易碎的;脆弱的;冷淡的;(声音)尖利的 | |
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273 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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274 eke | |
v.勉强度日,节约使用 | |
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275 fowls | |
鸟( fowl的名词复数 ); 禽肉; 既不是这; 非驴非马 | |
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276 destitute | |
adj.缺乏的;穷困的 | |
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277 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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278 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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279 ravages | |
劫掠后的残迹,破坏的结果,毁坏后的残迹 | |
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280 dole | |
n.救济,(失业)救济金;vt.(out)发放,发给 | |
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281 turnips | |
芜青( turnip的名词复数 ); 芜菁块根; 芜菁甘蓝块根; 怀表 | |
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282 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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283 pestilence | |
n.瘟疫 | |
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284 sketches | |
n.草图( sketch的名词复数 );素描;速写;梗概 | |
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285 ravenous | |
adj.极饿的,贪婪的 | |
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286 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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287 imploring | |
恳求的,哀求的 | |
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288 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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289 voracity | |
n.贪食,贪婪 | |
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290 sprightliness | |
n.愉快,快活 | |
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291 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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292 beleaguered | |
adj.受到围困[围攻]的;包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词);困扰;骚扰 | |
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293 epidemic | |
n.流行病;盛行;adj.流行性的,流传极广的 | |
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294 apprenticeship | |
n.学徒身份;学徒期 | |
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295 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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296 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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297 locusts | |
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树 | |
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298 appalling | |
adj.骇人听闻的,令人震惊的,可怕的 | |
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299 narratives | |
记叙文( narrative的名词复数 ); 故事; 叙述; 叙述部分 | |
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300 penetrated | |
adj. 击穿的,鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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301 boggy | |
adj.沼泽多的 | |
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302 bog | |
n.沼泽;室...陷入泥淖 | |
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303 burrowed | |
v.挖掘(洞穴),挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 );翻寻 | |
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304 moors | |
v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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305 doorways | |
n.门口,门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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306 nil | |
n.无,全无,零 | |
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307 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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308 filth | |
n.肮脏,污物,污秽;淫猥 | |
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309 depict | |
vt.描画,描绘;描写,描述 | |
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310 inmates | |
n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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311 huddled | |
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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312 emaciated | |
adj.衰弱的,消瘦的 | |
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313 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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314 soddened | |
v.(液体)沸腾( seethe的过去分词 )( sodden的过去分词 );激动,大怒;强压怒火;生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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315 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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316 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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317 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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318 orphaned | |
[计][修]孤立 | |
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319 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
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320 desolating | |
毁坏( desolate的现在分词 ); 极大地破坏; 使沮丧; 使痛苦 | |
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321 industrious | |
adj.勤劳的,刻苦的,奋发的 | |
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322 thrifty | |
adj.节俭的;兴旺的;健壮的 | |
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323 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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324 looms | |
n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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325 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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326 pawn | |
n.典当,抵押,小人物,走卒;v.典当,抵押 | |
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327 miasma | |
n.毒气;不良气氛 | |
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328 graveyard | |
n.坟场 | |
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329 treasury | |
n.宝库;国库,金库;文库 | |
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330 appease | |
v.安抚,缓和,平息,满足 | |
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331 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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332 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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333 coffins | |
n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 );使某人早亡[死,完蛋,垮台等]之物 | |
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334 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
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335 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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336 interred | |
v.埋,葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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337 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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338 emigrant | |
adj.移居的,移民的;n.移居外国的人,移民 | |
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339 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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340 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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341 slew | |
v.(使)旋转;n.大量,许多 | |
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342 immolated | |
v.宰杀…作祭品( immolate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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343 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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344 berths | |
n.(船、列车等的)卧铺( berth的名词复数 );(船舶的)停泊位或锚位;差事;船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 );占铺位 | |
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345 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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346 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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347 guardians | |
监护人( guardian的名词复数 ); 保护者,维护者 | |
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348 outrage | |
n.暴行,侮辱,愤怒;vt.凌辱,激怒 | |
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349 violations | |
违反( violation的名词复数 ); 冒犯; 违反(行为、事例); 强奸 | |
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350 chaff | |
v.取笑,嘲笑;n.谷壳 | |
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351 imposture | |
n.冒名顶替,欺骗 | |
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352 distressed | |
痛苦的 | |
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353 apathy | |
n.漠不关心,无动于衷;冷淡 | |
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354 connivance | |
n.纵容;默许 | |
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355 alleged | |
a.被指控的,嫌疑的 | |
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356 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
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357 mendicancy | |
n.乞丐,托钵,行乞修道士 | |
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358 opposition | |
n.反对,敌对 | |
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359 discriminate | |
v.区别,辨别,区分;有区别地对待 | |
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360 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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361 arable | |
adj.可耕的,适合种植的 | |
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362 recess | |
n.短期休息,壁凹(墙上装架子,柜子等凹处) | |
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363 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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364 levy | |
n.征收税或其他款项,征收额 | |
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365 reclaiming | |
v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 );要求收回;从废料中回收(有用的材料);挽救 | |
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366 expenditure | |
n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出;使用,消耗 | |
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367 Augmented | |
adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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368 excise | |
n.(国产)货物税;vt.切除,删去 | |
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369 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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370 elicited | |
引出,探出( elicit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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371 machinery | |
n.(总称)机械,机器;机构 | |
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372 inadequate | |
adj.(for,to)不充足的,不适当的 | |
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373 destitution | |
n.穷困,缺乏,贫穷 | |
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374 tracts | |
大片土地( tract的名词复数 ); 地带; (体内的)道; (尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的)短文 | |
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375 incurred | |
[医]招致的,遭受的; incur的过去式 | |
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376 economists | |
n.经济学家,经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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377 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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378 outlay | |
n.费用,经费,支出;v.花费 | |
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379 impedes | |
阻碍,妨碍,阻止( impede的第三人称单数 ) | |
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380 undertaking | |
n.保证,许诺,事业 | |
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381 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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382 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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383 congregated | |
(使)集合,聚集( congregate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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384 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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385 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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386 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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387 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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388 wholesale | |
n.批发;adv.以批发方式;vt.批发,成批出售 | |
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389 barricades | |
路障,障碍物( barricade的名词复数 ) | |
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390 illustrate | |
v.举例说明,阐明;图解,加插图 | |
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391 gratuitous | |
adj.无偿的,免费的;无缘无故的,不必要的 | |
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392 bounty | |
n.慷慨的赠予物,奖金;慷慨,大方;施与 | |
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393 lessened | |
减少的,减弱的 | |
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394 rationed | |
限量供应,配给供应( ration的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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395 administrative | |
adj.行政的,管理的 | |
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396 emanating | |
v.从…处传出,传出( emanate的现在分词 );产生,表现,显示 | |
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397 anticipations | |
预期( anticipation的名词复数 ); 预测; (信托财产收益的)预支; 预期的事物 | |
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398 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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399 avert | |
v.防止,避免;转移(目光、注意力等) | |
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400 mitigate | |
vt.(使)减轻,(使)缓和 | |
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401 cleanse | |
vt.使清洁,使纯洁,清洗 | |
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402 sanitary | |
adj.卫生方面的,卫生的,清洁的,卫生的 | |
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403 commendable | |
adj.值得称赞的 | |
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404 unanimity | |
n.全体一致,一致同意 | |
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405 influential | |
adj.有影响的,有权势的 | |
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406 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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407 adoption | |
n.采用,采纳,通过;收养 | |
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408 dissuading | |
劝(某人)勿做某事,劝阻( dissuade的现在分词 ) | |
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409 submission | |
n.服从,投降;温顺,谦虚;提出 | |
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410 perverted | |
adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 );腐蚀;败坏;使堕落 | |
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411 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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412 awfully | |
adv.可怕地,非常地,极端地 | |
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413 alluding | |
提及,暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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414 inflamed | |
adj.发炎的,红肿的v.(使)变红,发怒,过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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415 exertions | |
n.努力( exertion的名词复数 );费力;(能力、权力等的)运用;行使 | |
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416 dispensed | |
v.分配( dispense的过去式和过去分词 );施与;配(药) | |
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417 entrusted | |
v.委托,托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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418 apportioned | |
vt.分摊,分配(apportion的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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419 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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420 sterling | |
adj.英币的(纯粹的,货真价实的);n.英国货币(英镑) | |
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421 accruing | |
v.增加( accrue的现在分词 );(通过自然增长)产生;获得;(使钱款、债务)积累 | |
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422 concurrently | |
adv.同时地 | |
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423 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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424 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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425 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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426 consigned | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
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427 remitted | |
v.免除(债务),宽恕( remit的过去式和过去分词 );使某事缓和;寄回,传送 | |
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428 ascertain | |
vt.发现,确定,查明,弄清 | |
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429 ascertained | |
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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430 remittances | |
n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 );汇款,汇款额 | |
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431 emigrants | |
n.(从本国移往他国的)移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
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