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Bone of contention   /boʊn əv kəntˈɛnʃən/   Listen
Bone of contention

noun
1.
The subject of a dispute.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Bone of contention" Quotes from Famous Books



... small part of the matter are reprinted from an article which I contributed last year to the New York Evening Post. Attention is called to the tangle in the names of glaciers and the need of a definitive nomenclature. As to the name of the Mountain itself, that famous bone of contention between two cities, I greatly prefer "Tacoma," one of the several authentic forms of the Indian name used by different tribes; but I believe that "Tahoma," proposed by the Rotary Club of Seattle, would be a justifiable compromise, and satisfy nearly everybody. Its adoption would free our ...
— The Mountain that was 'God' • John H. Williams

... the considerable village of Sercham is reached; here, as at Hadji Aghi, I at once become the bone of contention between rival khan-jees wanting to secure me for a guest, on the supposition that I am going to remain over night. Their anxiety is all unnecessary, however, for away off on the eastern horizon can be observed ...
— Around the World on a Bicycle V1 • Thomas Stevens

... deposited in a place of safety, took up a favourable position to watch my opponent, whom I soon perceived making for the tent with long and rapid strides. I could not help laughing heartily at the idea of his disappointment, when told what had happened. The "fair deceiver," to whom the bone of contention had belonged, soon made her appearance with downcast looks, humbly entreating payment for her furs, and I paid her the full amount, after lecturing her severely on the treachery of her conduct in doing "what ...
— Service in the Hudson's Bay Territory • John M'lean

... all indebted to the victory of the bull dog (England) over the blood hound (Germany) for what we have in the way of a guarantee against future wars, but wholly to the presumption of the Newfoundland dog (Russia) which has quietly walked off with the bone of contention while the belligerents were ...
— Communism and Christianism - Analyzed and Contrasted from the Marxian and Darwinian Points of View • William Montgomery Brown

... months more sufficed to bring his remaining foes to terms, and by the end of the year 1762 the distracting Seven Years' War was at an end, the indomitable Frederick remaining in full possession of Silesia, the great bone of contention in the war. His resolution and perseverance had raised Prussia to a high position among the kingdoms of Europe, and laid the foundations of the present ...
— Historical Tales, Vol 5 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality, German • Charles Morris

... he said, as carelessly as if the subject had never been a bone of contention between us, "that house I was speaking of the other night; the one Miss Draper thought we would like, has been rented, so we will have to look for ...
— Revelations of a Wife - The Story of a Honeymoon • Adele Garrison

... then, the drill, the return of duty, the probable chances of our being ordered for service, were all daily subjects to be talked over, and usually with considerable asperity and bitterness. One point, however, always served us when hard pushed for a bone of contention; and which, begun by a mere accident at first, gradually increased to a sore and peevish subject, and finally led to the consequences which I have hinted at in the beginning. This was no less than the respective merits of our mutual ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... the enemy any moment. Mrs. Bagster, or Clarissa, who was an elder sister of Laetitia's, became lukewarm, too, on a side-issue being raised. It did not appear to connect itself logically with the bone of contention, having reference entirely to vaccination from the calf. But it led to an exaggerated sensitiveness on her part as to the responsibility we incurred by interference with what might (after all) be the Will of Providence. ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... happenings at the other end of the line. Gaza was about to submit to the biggest of all her ordeals. She had been a bone of contention for thousands of years. The Pharaohs coveted her and more than 3500 years ago made bloody strife within the environs of the town. Alexander the Great besieged her, and Persians and Arabians opposed that mighty general. The Ptolemies and the Antiochi for centuries ...
— How Jerusalem Was Won - Being the Record of Allenby's Campaign in Palestine • W.T. Massey

... the latter half of 1863 strange incidents are to be found throwing light on the administrative duel. The writ of habeas corpus, as was so often the case in Confederate history, was the bone of contention. We have seen that the second statute empowering the President to proclaim martial law and to suspend the operation of the writ had expired by limitation in February, 1863. The Alabama courts were ...
— The Day of the Confederacy - A Chronicle of the Embattled South, Volume 30 In The - Chronicles Of America Series • Nathaniel W. Stephenson

... idle. The Homoean coalition was even more unstable than the Eusebian. Already before the death of Constantius there had been quarrels over the appointment of Meletius by one section of the party, of Eunomius by another. The deposition of Aetius was another bone of contention. Hence the coalition broke up of itself as soon as men were free to act. Acacius and his friends drew nearer to Meletius, while Eudoxius and Euzoius talked of annulling the condemnation of the Anomoean bishops at Constantinople. The Semiarians ...
— The Arian Controversy • H. M. Gwatkin

... acquire. The first meeting of the Board was held Dec. 15, Mr. Sargant being elected chairman and Mr. S.S. Lloyd vice-chairman. During the three years' reign of this Board the religious question was a continual bone of contention, the payment of school fees for the teaching of the Bible in denominational schools being denounced in the strongest of terms in and out of the Board-room by the "Irreconcileables," as the Nonconforming minority were termed. ...
— Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham - A History And Guide Arranged Alphabetically • Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell

... be busy with his paper, but he was thinking of his son. In his early years the child had been a bone of contention. His mother always knew just what to do with him, just what was proper, and would brook no interference. What with her cleanliness, her inordinate love of regularity and order, she had become a domestic tyrant. He had yielded because he loved peace. There was a good deal of comfort in his ...
— A Little Girl in Old New York • Amanda Millie Douglas

... always been a bone of contention in incubator discussions. With its little understood real importance, as shown in the previous section, and the greatly exaggerated popular notions of the importance of oxygen and imagined poisonous qualities of carbon dioxide, the confusion in the ...
— The Dollar Hen • Milo M. Hastings

... days went on, it became clear that the expected visit had provided a new bone of contention between the Russian parties. The Communists decided that the delegates should not be treated with any particular honour in the way of a reception. The Mensheviks at once set about preparing a triumphal reception on ...
— Russia in 1919 • Arthur Ransome

... pondered the question of the army as if it were something as remote and patient as a problem in sidereal arithmetic. Some asked for volunteers and some for universal service and some for neither. The National Guard was a bone of contention, and when the hour struck it was ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes

... sail in, an' catch a-holt of pleasure with both hands.' But my better part says, 'Take your pleasure in mutual enjoyments, Benjamin; fix your mind on book-learning and the elevating Arts of peace.' I am a bone of contention between Virtue and License, an' the Devil only knows which will get me in ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace

... from being sent into the State. Elected a representative in 1766, Putnam was prepared to do all in his power to frustrate the intent of the Act; but, in common with his fellow citizens, was made happy by the news of its repeal. As this was then the only bone of contention between the Colonials and the King, the former hastened to send the latter a loyal address of thanks, assuring him of their ...
— "Old Put" The Patriot • Frederick A. Ober

... had long been a bone Of contention between this Darby and Joan; And often, among their pother and rout, When this otherwise amiable couple ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... the United Synod reported: "While united in doctrine, it is to be regretted that we are not so fully united in practise, as was made apparent by the action of the United Synod on the 'By-laws, Rules of Order, and Regulations,' and particularly in regard to work. This section, which is the bone of contention, embraces substantially the celebrated 'Four Points.' And even here the difference is not so much in principle as in the practical application of principles. There are extremes on both sides. An attempt to embody the Four Points' in our basis of union would have defeated the ...
— American Lutheranism - Volume 2: The United Lutheran Church (General Synod, General - Council, United Synod in the South) • Friedrich Bente

... clumsy for morning visitings, and never go out of my islands. But still I can love my neighbour in or out of them, and hope, in the name of peace, to be on good terms. Sha'n't be my fault if them tithes come across. Then I wish that bone of contention was from between the two churches. Meantime, I'm not snarling, if others is not craving: and I'd wish for the look of it, for your sake, Harry, that it should be all smooth; so say any thing you will for me ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... remonstrance and claim for indemnity to some pundit in authority; but perceiving that by such fishing in troubled waters I was the gainer of a golden-headed umbrella, fresh as a rose, I decided to accept the olive branch and bury the bone of contention. ...
— Baboo Jabberjee, B.A. • F. Anstey

... and wished for the hundredth time that she had never been born. She had been a bone of contention all her life, and, even when the two families were not fighting over her, the Bartlett blood was warring with the Martel blood within her. Her standards were hopelessly confused; she did not know what she wanted except that she wanted passionately ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice

... of years this post of Port Royal was the bone of contention between the French and English; the fort, being held for a time by one power, then by the other, representing the shuttle-cock when these contending nations battled at her doors. In 1654 the place was held by the ...
— Over the Border: Acadia • Eliza Chase

... politeness long since deemed old-fashioned. The remark, however, displeased her, making her feel uneasy, and she did not notice his rejoinder, smiling his pleasure and content—"Except yourself and our bank account, my dear." This passion of his for trees was of old a bone of contention, though very mild contention. It frightened her. That was the truth. The Bible, her Baedeker for earth and heaven, did not mention it. Her husband, while humoring her, could never alter that instinctive dread she had. He soothed, but never changed her. She liked the woods, perhaps as ...
— The Man Whom the Trees Loved • Algernon Blackwood

... seems a continual bone of contention with my friends. They scold me because I shelved it to the ceiling, because I put in one-colored wood, because I framed my pictures and engravings this way, and because I haven't gone in for rugs, ...
— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford

... the position she had taken. This she said in French and in German, and in her own perfidious tongue. She stated this uncompromisingly, but at the same time sent secret orders to withdraw the force that was the bone of contention. This order she soon countermanded. A certain speech delivered by a too voluble Belgian minister was responsible for the stiffening of her back, and His Excellency the Administrator of the territory received official instructions ...
— Bones - Being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country • Edgar Wallace

... ensuing six years the supreme power in Egypt was mainly the bone of contention between rival viziers, although El-Faiz, a boy of five, was nominally elected caliph on the death of Dhafir. El-Abbas was worsted by his rival, Tatae, and fled to Syria with a large sum of money; but he fell into the hands of the Crusaders, ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 12 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... that child should be quite the opposite of a bone of contention. "I have thought of that," said he, "and I mean to be so kind to that boy, I shall MAKE her love me ...
— A Simpleton • Charles Reade

... Leg while cash was flush, Or the Count's acceptance worth a rush, Had never created dissension; But no sooner the stocks began to fall, Than, without any ossification at all, The limb became what people call A perfect bone of contention. ...
— The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood • Thomas Hood

... prize of the war, became at once the bone of contention. David Wilmot offered in Congress (August, 1846) a bill forbidding slavery in any territory which should be acquired. This measure, though lost, excited violent debate in and out of Congress, and became the great feature ...
— A Brief History of the United States • Barnes & Co.

... all the world knows. The breath was no sooner out of his brother's body, than he resolved, if possible, to succeed him in parliament as representative for the borough of Ashenton. Now you must know, that this borough had been for many years a bone of contention between the families of Greaves and Darnel; and at length the difference was compromised by the interposition of friends, on condition that Sir Everhard and Squire Darnel should alternately represent the place in parliament. They agreed to this compromise for their mutual convenience; ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett

... dispute a strip of land from 5 to 8 M. wide, a rich agricultural region within which lay Toledo. Gov. Lucas of Ohio, by authority of the State Legislature (1835), sent three commissioners out to re-mark the Harris line so as to include the bone of contention. When Gov. Mason, appointed by President Jackson as administrator of the territory of Michigan heard about this, he dispatched a division of militia ...
— The Greatest Highway in the World • Anonymous

... they were endeavouring to throw up a redoubt for his guns on an eminence between Irun and Oyarzun, so as to put an end to the tussle over the possession of the latter hamlet, which was a perpetual bone of contention. The Carlists fired upon him from behind the rocks in a gorge to which he had committed himself, but were outnumbered. Word was sent to the cabecilla, Martinez, at Lesaca, and he arrived with reinforcements at the double, and ...
— Romantic Spain - A Record of Personal Experiences (Vol. II) • John Augustus O'Shea

... Britain and France have claimed to have superior rights in Morocco, and it has seemed to be the desire of France to annex it. Germany has intervened, and the country has been a bone of contention among the European Nations. In 1904 Great Britain and France, by a secret treaty, agreed that France should have the dominating control in Morocco, and that Great Britain should dominate in Egypt. Germany opposed the French Protectorate and insisted that an international conference of the powers ...
— Fifty Years of Public Service • Shelby M. Cullom

... excitement, rarely venturing to lift up its voice in opposition. The juniors, however, generally contrived to have their fling, usually on the question of fagging, which being a recognised institution at Templeton, formed a standing bone of contention. And, as part of the business of Elections was the solemn drawing of lots for new boys to fill the vacancies caused by removal or promotion, the opportunity generally commended itself as a fit one for some ...
— Follow My leader - The Boys of Templeton • Talbot Baines Reed

... of the early eighties are with us yet. Ireland is still a bone of contention between political parties: the Channel tunnel is no nearer completion: and then as now, when other topics are exhausted, the "Spectator" can fill up its columns with Thought Transference and ...
— The History of the Fabian Society • Edward R. Pease

... men run forward that bone of contention, the cannon, and a solid shot was sent humming toward those who had pursued the three. The heavy report came back in sullen echoes from the prairie, and the stream of fire split the fog asunder. But in a moment the mists and vapors closed in again, and the Mexicans ...
— The Texan Star - The Story of a Great Fight for Liberty • Joseph A. Altsheler

... latter conclusion is much less secure than the former. In such a case as this, the more we narrow our limits the greater our liability to error.[216] While by such narrowing, moreover, the question may acquire more interest as a bone of contention among local antiquarians, its value for the ...
— The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) - with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest • John Fiske

... idea that occurred to Moronval, but he was aroused from his silent hilarity by the noise of a discussion too animated to be altogether amiable. He heard the puffs and sighs of Labassandre and the solemn little voice of madame. Easily divining the bone of contention, he hastened to the assistance of his wife, whom he found heroically defending the money paid by Madame Constant against the demands of the professors, whose salaries were greatly ...
— Jack - 1877 • Alphonse Daudet

... brought before a committee of the Privy Council, where the Pennsylvania Assembly through its representative virtually won its case. The proprietary estates were made subject to taxation, and this bone of contention was for a time removed. It was indeed a great victory for the Philadelphia printer; but perhaps its chief value was the training it gave him for the more important diplomatic negotiations that were to come later. There was that ...
— Benjamin Franklin • Paul Elmer More

... on this station these islands have been a bone of contention, between China and Japan, as to which shall possess them; the old "father" and "mother" farce being recognised as played out by mutual consent. The Japs, in 1877, took the initiative, and sent an expedition to Napa, and forcibly made the native king prisoner; ...
— In Eastern Seas - The Commission of H.M.S. 'Iron Duke,' flag-ship in China, 1878-83 • J. J. Smith

... foreign sections, quite as characteristic as the Swedish, and certain to arouse discussion because of its extreme modernism. The ultra-radical art of Edvard Munch, who is called the greatest of Norwegian painters, and to whom a special room is assigned, is sure to be a bone of contention among the critics. The work of Harald Sohlberg (medal of honor) and Halfdan Strom (gold medal), differing widely from Munch's, though hardly less modern in style, will also attract much attention. ...
— The Jewel City • Ben Macomber

... history. In 1803 we purchased what was then called Louisiana, of France. It included the present States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa; also the Territory of Minnesota, and the present bone of contention, Kansas and Nebraska. Slavery already existed among the French at New Orleans, and to some extent at St. Louis. In 1812 Louisiana came into the Union as a slave State, without controversy. In 1818 or '19, Missouri showed ...
— The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Complete - Constitutional Edition • Abraham Lincoln

... and insist on her wearing it, and her mother liked to see her, and to show her, in it. It was only Ida who seemed unable to help saying something disagreeable, till, almost in despair, Constance offered to lend the bone of contention; but Lady Adela was a small woman, and Constance would never be on so large a scale as her sister, so that the jacket refused to be transferred except at the risk of being spoilt by alteration; and here Mrs. Morton interfered, 'It would never do to have them say at Northmoor ...
— That Stick • Charlotte M. Yonge

... duties, taxes upon imports; here first they finally got it on wool, the thing produced of most value of anything in England; and consequently an important protective duty. It is a curious historical fact that this article, wool, seems to be the chief bone of contention ever since; in our tariffs nothing has been more bitter than the dispute on wool; the duty on wool is the shibboleth of the extreme protectionist.[1] Ohio, which is the home of the strong protection feeling, regards the duty on wool as the corner-stone to the whole fabric. It ...
— Popular Law-making • Frederic Jesup Stimson

... well-rounded and high-sounding sentences, that "in Ireland famine urges men to take land at any price—they must have it or die;" and that, "when a piece of ground falls out of lease, it becomes a bone of contention amongst some twenty or thirty miserable competitors, who outbid each other, to the great delight and profit of the ruthless and exulting landlord, and to their own utter ruin." If any one takes time to reflect ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 343, May 1844 • Various

... uproar ensued which became so loud and threatening, that I feared it would come to the ears of Aslan Sultan, who very probably would have settled the dispute by taking at once the bone of contention from the contending parties. But luckily the astrologer interfered, and when he had assured the second wife that the blood of the Banou would be upon her head if anything unfortunate happened on this occasion, she consented to give up her pretensions. I accordingly prepared ...
— The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan • James Morier

... blast of invective which came from Mr. DUKE. In language which seemed to cause some trepidation even to the Ministers he was supporting he denounced his right hon. friend for introducing "this stale and stinking bone of contention," and plainly hinted that it was part of a plot to get rid of the PRIME MINISTER. If that eminent temperance advocate, Sir THOMAS WHITTAKER, had not poured water into Mr. DUKE's wine, and emptied the House in the process, there might have ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, April 12, 1916 • Various

... been lying pretty near to the river's mouth during the darkness of the night. They were not slow to make us out in our unhappy position. I ordered the boats to be lowered, and gave every one on board the option of leaving the vessel, as it seemed evident that we were doomed to be a bone of contention between the fort and the blockaders. All hands, however, stuck to the ship, and we set to work to lighten her as much as possible. Steam being got up to the highest pressure, the engines worked famously, but she would not move, and I feared the sand ...
— Sketches From My Life - By The Late Admiral Hobart Pasha • Hobart Pasha

... Chopin toured the continent. As in his later relation to George Sand, the passion of a poet, Alfred Musset, rivalled his, so at this time he found a rival in the Polish poet, Julius Slovaki. The pretty, vivacious, and perhaps somewhat flirtatious girl, Comtesse Maria Wodzinska, was the bone of contention, or, rather, the "rag and the bone and the ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 • Rupert Hughes

... asked Miss Madigan, absently. "He isn't sick, is he? Irene complains of headache and backache, and she's so languid she let Sissy get the wish-bone—I call it the bone of contention—at dinner yesterday without a struggle. I'm half afraid she'll not be able to sing to-night at Professor Trask's concert; but perhaps it's only that she danced too much at Crosby's ...
— The Madigans • Miriam Michelson

... one of the things that would invite assault. The works have always been a bone of contention between the two armies, and the British need of the article is pressing just at this time. Were it not that the highway from Freehold to Trenton is infested by those miscreants of the pines, I should say go with one of the shore wagons ...
— Peggy Owen and Liberty • Lucy Foster Madison

... Sir Peter and Winn had one never failing bone of contention, the rival merits of the sister services. Sir Peter expressed on every possible occasion in his son's presence, a bitter contempt for the army, and Winn never let an opportunity pass without pointing out the gorged and pampered ...
— The Dark Tower • Phyllis Bottome

... New York, and an amendment proposed to transfer the works intended to their dock-yard at Brooklyn. The other states which possess dock-yards would also assert their right, and thus they will all fight for their respective establishments until the bill is lost, and the bone of contention falls to the ground. ...
— Diary in America, Series One • Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)

... was certain sooner or later, for Florence was growing in strength and riches; she would not for ever be content to let Pisa hold her sea-gate, taking toll of all that passed in and out. It was in 1222 that the first war broke out with the White Lily. Any excuse was good enough; the bone of contention appears to have been a lap-dog belonging to one of the Ambassadors[28]. Pisa was beaten. In 1259, nevertheless, she turned on the Genoese and drove them down the seas. But the death of Frederic in 1250 was the true end of ...
— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... through life had separated husband and wife. Even then it seemed strange to the children that such fierce feelings and such ill words should be excited by a matter that had absolutely no influence on ordinary life, and which was never introduced but as a bone of contention. Nor hitherto had the poor neglected ones any opportunity of learning the blessed truths of a Father's and a Saviour's love from any other quarter. There was no place of worship in the glen. The Presbyterian chapel was a mile away, and even there no Sunday-school ...
— A Child of the Glens - or, Elsie's Fortune • Edward Newenham Hoare

... and honest neutrality was therefore observed, and—San Domingo is still a bone of contention, though not with Spain, for it is an eye on ...
— The Lincoln Story Book • Henry L. Williams

... developed trade-routes, the East and the West were tapped for such products as tobacco, tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, rum, spices, oranges, lemons, raisins, currants, silks, cotton, rice, and others with which England had previously somehow or other dispensed; and the principal bone of contention was the carrying trade of the world. Shipbuilding was the most famous English industry; and when Peter the Great visited England, he spent most of his time in the Deptford yards. For some of these ...
— The History of England - A Study in Political Evolution • A. F. Pollard

... means void of importance. One is the union, not common in French books between the sixteenth and the nineteenth century, of sentiment and seriousness with something very like humour. Hylas, the not exactly "comic man," but light-o'-love and inconstant shepherd, was rather a bone of contention among critics of the book's own century. But he certainly seasons it well; and there is one almost Shakespearean scene in which he is concerned—a scene which Benedick and Beatrice, who may have read it not so very many years after their own marriage, ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 1 - From the Beginning to 1800 • George Saintsbury

... you, my friend. Me. You are merely the bone of contention. I am the impudent terrier who has interfered with the peace of ...
— Madcap • George Gibbs

... them. Vainly were bulls thundered from the Vatican. No amendment was effected. The weed might be cut down, but was never entirely extirpated. Their feuds were transmitted from generation to generation, and their old bone of contention with the abbot of Saint-Germain (the Pre-aux-Clercs) was, after an uninterrupted strife for thirty years, submitted to the arbitration of the Pope, who very equitably refused to pronounce judgment in favor ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 1 • Charles Dudley Warner

... time, and woman has governed man from the foundation of the world! [Laughter]. I know that Plato didn't have a good opinion of women; but probably they were not as amiable in his day as in ours. They undoubtedly have wrought their full share of mischief in the world. The chief bone of contention among mankind, from the earliest ages down, has been that rib of Adam out of which God made Eve. [Laughter]. And I believe in holding women to as great a moral accountability as men. [Laughter]. I believe, also, in holding them to the same intellectual accountability. Twenty ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... back to the churches, and refusal to accept protracted the evil times. Thus the host of God was divided against itself; Judah against Israel, and Israel against Judah. Archbishop Sharp had boasted, that by the Indulgence he would throw a "bone of contention" among the ...
— Sketches of the Covenanters • J. C. McFeeters

... "The first bone of contention is the participation of Penn in that nefarious transaction by which the Royal Maids of Honor extorted ransoms from the poor Taunton girls who had welcomed the arrival of Monmouth. It seems that the chief, if not the sole authority for Mr. Macaulay's ...
— The International Magazine, Volume 2, No. 3, February, 1851 • Various

... minor but never ending bone of contention and point of irritation, and excited debate arose in the Thirtieth Congress over a House resolution that the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report a bill as soon as practicable prohibiting the slave trade in the District ...
— A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln - Condensed from Nicolay & Hay's Abraham Lincoln: A History • John G. Nicolay

... up of the boys had always been a bone of contention between Aaron and their parents. If their birth, in Aaron's view, had been a misfortune, the way they were reared was nothing less ...
— The Rushton Boys at Rally Hall - Or, Great Days in School and Out • Spencer Davenport

... suffer from a want of space: we can afford to give you as wide a berth as you like. What little suffices for us is never the bone of contention between any rival claimants. Is not that so, my ...
— The King of the Dark Chamber • Rabindranath Tagore (trans.)

... between England and other countries,—notably Spain and France. Gibraltar was the subject of one of them, it may be recalled. It was to Gibraltar that Captain Warren and his good ship Grafton were ordered. And when Sir. Charles Wager seized that historic bone of contention, Peter was with the fleet that ...
— Greenwich Village • Anna Alice Chapin

... satisfied me that I ought not to place myself in a position which would render me liable to become a party concerned in such a correspondence, and subject to the assumed authority and control of another Institution. The Income of the Institution having become a bone of contention between the Church of England and the other Protestant Churches, it appears to me to be right that I should perform my part as Governor-General without being embarrassed by proceedings to which I might be a party as a Governor of ...
— McGill and its Story, 1821-1921 • Cyrus Macmillan

... should happen to be the bone of contention—and the butt of what may be a good deal of ...
— The White Desert • Courtney Ryley Cooper

... Another bone of contention was her preparation. She had been so accustomed to work in a room by herself at Abbey Close that she found the presence of others highly distracting. Though silence was enforced, the girls fluttered the leaves of their ...
— The Luckiest Girl in the School • Angela Brazil

... in an accident. Mrs. Bennett sent for me and I took charge of the funeral arrangements. Mr. Bryan came on at once and helped. After the funeral he read and discussed the will. I was present at several of these discussions. The sealed letter written by the dead man was the bone of contention. Then the lawyers came in and the case went into the courts. The world knew but a fragment of the truth. It looked to me at first as if a selfish motive actuated Mr. Bryan, but as I got at the details one after another, ...
— From the Bottom Up - The Life Story of Alexander Irvine • Alexander Irvine

... frequently the bone of contention between energetic ministers of the gospel and the police department. Regularly the police swore that gambling did not exist in town, and regularly the ministers went on a still hunt for proofs. Singularly enough, they never found any. A hint from headquarters, and the den would ...
— Half a Rogue • Harold MacGrath

... or practice of a custom has been such a long-standing bone of contention as circumcision; nor does the Sphynx surpass this relic of bygone ages in mystery. From time immemorial its practice has been the subject of disputes, and its literature finds oftentimes its friends and foes ranged side by side. At one ...
— History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present - Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance • Peter Charles Remondino

... Bay of Fundy, which now forms the Province of New Brunswick, was for nearly half a century a bone of contention between the French and their English rivals. It might indeed be said that from the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 to the Treaty of Paris in 1763 the controversy continued to disturb the peace of Europe. Sometimes ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond

... objection to all these amendments. If our work here is to have any efficacy, we must adhere to the report. Why bring in another bone of contention? ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden

... hearing of the murder fitted in exactly with the theory taking shape in the detective's mind—that there were two implacable forces at war in New York that night, that Lady Hermione's marriage to Count Vassilan or the Frenchman provided the immediate bone of contention, and that the struggle had been complicated by a too literal interpretation of instructions carried ...
— One Wonderful Night - A Romance of New York • Louis Tracy

... rejected of the builders really became the head of the corner, for in spite of all that the Pierce Administration could do, the problem of the Northwest, which Douglas personified, became the bone of contention between the sections, and again, as in 1850, the South, the East, and the Northwest struggled for supremacy. When the Davis plans for a southern Pacific railroad were maturing, Senator Douglas, the head of the Senate Committee on Territories, was preparing to renew his six-year fight for the opening ...
— Expansion and Conflict • William E. Dodd

... had a visit in the afternoon from the C.O., Agassiz, and Dickie. With the two last I walked over to Y. Beach, and at the Artillery Observation Post there, under the guidance of the officer in charge, we had a capital view of all our trenches on the left flank, including one that has been a bone of contention for some time, and was the cause of an attack by the Turks last night. This trench was formerly Turkish, but half of it is now in our possession and between us is a pile of sandbags. Over this barrier each takes ...
— The Incomparable 29th and the "River Clyde" • George Davidson

... themselves one way or other, did not appear sufficient to answer his End, he chang'd Hands again, and went to work with the Clergy: To set the Doctors effectually together by the Ears, he threw in the new Notion of Primacy among them, for a Bone of Contention; the Bait took, the Priests swallow'd it eagerly down, and the Devil, a cunninger Fisherman than ever St. Peter was, struck them (as the Anglers call it) with a quick Hand, and hung ...
— The History of the Devil - As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts • Daniel Defoe

... installed in a small room, half lumber-room, half work-room, as shirt-maker in ordinary to the son and heir. He was restored to his own bedroom, and, together, with his father kept at a distance from the bone of contention. ...
— Gladys, the Reaper • Anne Beale

... The time came when he was permitted to become a citizen. For two years he had led an inchoate, nondescript sort of existence: free without power or right; neither slave nor freeman; neither property nor citizen. He had been, meanwhile, a bone of contention between the Provisional Governments of the States and the military power which controlled them. The so-called State Governments dragged him toward the whipping-post and the Black Codes and serfdom. They denied him his ...
— Bricks Without Straw • Albion W. Tourgee

... the next group. These remarkable brothers lived together in the greatest harmony, though there was always a bone of contention between them. They were never seen apart, such was their brotherly fondness. They married young, both being opposed to a single life. The short one is not quite so tall as his brother, although their ages are about the same. One of them was born in the Island of Borneo, the other ...
— Entertainments for Home, Church and School • Frederica Seeger

... representatives to consider well all the bearings of the question, and if they cannot resist effectually these encroachments of the Imperial Government, adopt the remaining alternative of saving themselves from an infliction, by giving up at once and entirely, the bone of contention between us. Thus only shall we disarm, if anything in reason or in nature can, our enemies of their slanderous weapons of offence, and secure in as far as possible, a speedy and safe return of peace and prosperity to the "distracted" colony.—Without this sacrifice on ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... Cabinet are strangely divided, the former desiring to have Mr. Herries for Chancellor of the Exchequer, the latter to have Lord Palmerston, that Calcraft may be Secretary of War. The King has declared firmly for Herries, on which Lord Goderich with tears entreated Herries to remove the bone of contention by declining to accept. The King called him a blubbering fool. That the King does not like or trust the Whigs is obvious from his passing over Lord Lansdowne, a man who, I should suppose, is infinitely better fitted for a Premier than Goderich. But he probably looks with no greater [favour] ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... in my house is my business, and detestable things seem to be happening." Our host, it was clear, now so furiously detested them that I was afraid he would snatch the bone of contention without more ceremony. "Bring me that thing!" he cried; on which ...
— A Passionate Pilgrim • Henry James

... Pennsylvania brigade as they appeared in groups of two or three on the road in front. The colonel as he handed me over to his men ordered his troops to take what prisoners they could and to cease firing. The guns which we were forced to abandon were a bone of contention until they were secured by the enemy on the third day, at which time but one of the twenty-four ...
— Famous Adventures And Prison Escapes of the Civil War • Various

... with the Agas of different districts, who gave him much conflicting evidence about the doings of Macri Georgio, but with no result, and the Alligator was finally brought to an anchor at Salonica, where he prosecuted further inquiries. Salonica, which to-day promises to become a bone of contention among some of the Powers of Europe, he found 'a clean town, containing about 70,000 inhabitants. The walls are in the Turkish style of fortification and without a ditch; the city stands on an inclined plain gently sloping to the ...
— Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. - A Memoir • Lady Biddulph of Ledbury

... in this, my lifetime, that gold profits a man nothing. It is ever a bone of contention, and he who has it is poorer than he who has it not. I hope this chest will do him good who finds it; and if it is never found, then the earth will be so much the richer by this small portion of the wealth it has lost. In any case, to ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond

... except Ceylon and Trinidad; the one a Dutch colony, and the other a Spanish; both powers having been our Allies at the commencement of the war. The Cape is to be given back to the Dutch; but Malta, the principal bone of contention, is to be garrisoned by a Neapolitan force, until a Maltese garrison can be raised, and the island is then to be declared independent, under the guarantee of all the great powers of Europe. The French government ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various

... death of Margaret, daughter of Alexander III, 1286, left the crown a bone of contention; Balliol finally secured it by favour of Edward I of England, the overlord of Scotland. Then followed the War of Independence under Wallace and Bruce and the Battle of Bannockburn, 1314. This long and destructive war caused the Scots to have a deadly hatred of the English, ...
— Ontario Teachers' Manuals: History • Ontario Ministry of Education

... acquainted with Canadian history to be aware of the fact, that these unfortunate Clergy Reserves have been a bone of contention ever since they were set apart. I know how very inconvenient it is to repeal the Imperial Act which was intended to be a final settlement of the question; but I must candidly say I very much doubt whether you will be able ...
— Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin • James, Eighth Earl of Elgin



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