"Cabal."

During the tenth year of his reign, Charles II. of England was surrounded by a ministry unprincipled in character and pernicious in counsel.

Their names were Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and Lauderdale. The initials form the word cabal, a term which, from the character of those men, has since been employed in politics to designate a secret and dangerous association. It was an odd coincidence that the initials of the English cabinet officers formed the word cabal. That word was, however, well known before any of those men were born. Etymologists trace it to the Hebrew gabbalah. As early as 1656 the word was already used in its modern sense. In that year Cromwell is recorded to have said of a certain man that "he had never been at any cabal." In 1646, also, according to Clarendon, Charles I. had "asked of a certain man whether he were engaged in any cabal concerning the army."