The Portland daily press., 1874-08-06
tFrom the New York Times.1
GSNahoIS -

Sometimes an ignoramus, by uttering g
half truth with great deal of fuss and cere-
mony, imposes even upon those who are not
quite so ignorant as himself. and the harm
that he thus does makes it, in manner, nee
essary to notice what otherwise would be
passed by IN silence. u In utter ig-
norance that cd6dl, cabaI,d, and kabbaidk
mean not only the same thing, but are actu-
ally the same word, to all intents and pur-
poses, it is asserted that the Times ..gets it
confused with the English word cabal, or jun
to, which originated from the names OF the
five ministers of Charles III, about 1910.
These were Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham,
Arlington, and Lauerdale, whose initials spell
the word "cabal." The Times asserts that
the original cabar was of Egyptian origin.
This is about as far from the truth as as is
possible, since Kaballah comes from the He
brew word Kdbbei, to receive. AID was first
used to signify traditional teachings
As to this wonderful English word cabal,"
of course we have all heard the story about
the five statesmen; having done so at the
same time that we learned that crocodles en-
ticed men to the banks of the Nile by weep
ing and wallilg, and then dcvour them. But
let us see what Richardson and Latham say
about it, men who bad more knowledge of
English words in the parings OF their nails
than all the "skilled talent'' of the Nassau
street organ, assisted by selection of quack
doctors, conld acquire from now until dooms-
day, First, Richardson says:
''Cabal. From the Hebrew. A hidden
science of divine mysteries, etc.
To crew of rogues it appears to be applied,
because they are associated tor dark and mys-
terious purposes, with secret and concealed
designs"
Not a word here as to the initials OF the
names of Charles II's five ministers being
the origin OF cabal Next Latham:
''Cabal. Same as Cabala. ICiting as ex-
ample and authority, Tie childish fancies
and fables of the Jewish rabbins in their ral-
mud and cabai. ApOt0qy."!
Again not a word about the five ministers.
But there is passage which has at second
or third hand misled our lobbying sage. 1t *
in Bishop Burnet's History OF His Own
Time," and is as follows:
"This juuto, together with the Duke of
Buckingham, being called the 'cabal,' it was
observed that 'cabaP proved technical
word, every letter being the first of those five:
Clifford Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington and
Lauderdale."
The TACT was(and it appears plainly enough
by this very passage) that the junto of minis
ters were first called the cabal because, as
Richardson says, they were crew of rogues
associated tor dark and mysterious purpose,
and then cit proved by chance that in this
case the initials OF the names of the rogues
spelled tae word. If in getting up this cram,
this writer had had time to look at a preced-
ing article in the Cyclopedia itself, he wodld
have seen the following very sound para
| graph:
'Some authorities have enormously stated
| that the word Was formed about 1870 from
| the initials, etc., etc, called the cabal minis
| try {; but it was in use in English long before
| their time. 1t was probably derived from taa
| Hebrew cabala, and like that word, generally
| conveyed the .dea OF something secret and
| AS TO The Hebrew origin of the word and OF
| the thing. it will appear that both word and
| thing are Coptic, and were carried by the He.
! brews out of Egypt.
| We should not have wasted so much space
| upon such a criticism, had il not been so per-
| feet an example OF that kind of little knowl-
edge which is such dangerous thing, and OF
the consequences that viii happen to chill
ireu who handle edged tools. Where such
blunGerlng pretense 10 ktowle0ge comes
from, of course, We cannot tell, but 1t is nuch
| What we might expect il It could be traced %
| an Ignorant Irish lobbyist or qdaeA decor.