_Cabal_ (Vol. iv., p. 443.).--The word "cabal" occurs in two different senses in _Hudibras_; but I have only before me the Edinburgh edition of 1779, and so cannot tell whether Butler used it at a date previous to that assigned to its coinage by Burnet. _Hudibras_ was written before the Restoration, at all events; but I have no opportunity of consulting the first edition, which was well known for ten years before the _Cabal_ of 1672. "For mystic learning, wondrous able, In magic talisman and _cabal_." _Hudibras_, Part I. Canto I. 529. Upon which I find this learned note:-- "Raymund Lully interprets _cabal_ out of the Arabic, to signify Scientia superabundans, which his commentator, Cornelius Agrippa, by over-magnifying, has rendered 'a very superfluous foppery.' Vid. J. Pici, _Mirandulæ de Magia et Cabala_, Apol. tome i. pp. 110. 111.; Sir Walter Raleigh's _History of the World_, part i, book i. p. 67., edit. 1614; Purchas' _Pilgrims_, part ii. lib. vi. pp. 796, 797, 798.; Scot's _Discovery of Witchcraft_, cap. xi.; Dee's _Book of Spirits, with Dr. Meric Casaubon's Preface_; Churchill's _Voyages, &c._, vol. ii. p. 528., second edition; Bailey's _Dictionary_, folio edition, under the word 'cabala;' Jacob's _Law Dictionary_, under the word 'cabal;' and _British Librarian_, No. 6. for June, 1737, p. 340." The other instance I am adducing gives us "cabal" in its common acceptation:-- "Set up committees of _cabals_ To pack designs without the walls." Part III. Canto II. 945. I again copy a note from Dr. Grey:-- "A sneer probably upon Clifford, Ashley, Burlington, Arlington, Lauderdale, who were called the CABAL in King Charles II.'s time, from the initial letters of their names.--See _Echard_, vol. iii. p. 251." Your correspondent E. H. D. D. may be glad of these two quotations, and I quite agree with him in ascribing an earlier date than that mentioned by Burnet to the word "cabal" in the sense of "a secret council." The transition from its original sense was easy and natural, and the application to King Charles's confidential advisers ingenious. RT. Warmington.