A considerable part of the public debt of Great Britian, which had been contracted in the form of annuities yielding various rates of interest, was, in 1757, consolidated into one fund at 3 per cent interest, the account of which is kept at the Bank of England. This debt has been diminished and increased at different times, and now constitutes somewhat more than half of the entire national debt. The stocks are transferable, and Their value in the market constantly fluctuates; the price at any time being regarded as a gauge of the national prosperity and public confidence.

Consommé
(||Con`som`m"é) n. [F., lit. p. p. of consommer to finish.] (Cookery) A clear soup or bouillion boiled down so as to be very rich.

Consonance
(Con"so*nance Con"so*nan*cy) , n. [L. consonantia: cf. F. consonnance.]

1. (Mus.) Accord or agreement of sounds produced simultaneously, as a note with its third, fifth, and eighth.

2. Agreement or congruity; harmony; accord; consistency; suitableness.

The perfect consonancy of our persecuted church to the doctrines of Scripture and antiquity.
Hammond.

The optic nerve responds to the waves with which it is in consonance.
Tyndall.

3. Friendship; concord. [Obs.]

By the consonancy of our youth.
Shak.

Syn. — Agreement; accord; consistency; unison; harmony; congruity; suitableness; agreeableness.

Consonant
(Con"so*nant) a. [L. consonans, -antis; p. pr. of consonare to sound at the same time, agree; con- + sonare to sound: cf. F. consonnant. See Sound to make a noise.]

1. Having agreement; congruous; consistent; according; — usually followed by with or to.

Each one pretends that his opinion . . . is consonant to the words there used.
Bp. Beveridge.

That where much is given there shall be much required is a thing consonant with natural equity.
Dr. H. More.

2. Having like sounds.

Consonant words and syllables.
Howell.

3. (Mus.) harmonizing together; accordant; as, consonant tones, consonant chords.

4. Of or pertaining to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.

No Russian whose dissonant consonant name
Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.
T. Moore.

Consonant
(Con"so*nant), n. [L. consonans, -antis.] An articulate sound which in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a vowel; also, a letter or character representing such a sound.

Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes, spirants, sibilants, nasals, semivowels, etc. All of them are sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than that of a vowel proper, although the most open of them, as the semivowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels, and forming syllables with other closer consonants, as in the English feeble taken All the consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely, prolonged in utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels and consonants may be regarded as


  By PanEris using Melati.

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