The other instance I am adducing gives us "cabal" in its common acceptation:--
"Set up committees of _cabals_ To pack designs without the walls."
"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.
_Rectitudines Singularum Personarum_ (Vol. iv., p. 442.).--In reply to the inquiries of H. C. C., let me refer him to pp. xi. and xxv. of the preface and list of MSS. in vol. i. of the _Ancient Laws, &c. of England_, edited by Mr. Thorpe, under the direction of the late Record Commission. He will there find that the real MS. site of that document is stated to be in the library of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, and to be of the date of the tenth century. It is not stated upon what ground so early a date is assigned to it; but as so competent a judge as the editor seems to give that date without any expression of doubt, we may presume that there is satisfactory proof of the fact. I do not observe the document mentioned in Wanley's catalogue, and Nasmith's more recent one is not at hand to refer to. The matter contained in it does not (at least in my judgment) _necessarily_ indicate so early a date, inasmuch as parallel, and even identical, rights and customs, connected with the _status_ of persons and tenure of land, were in active existence at a much later period of our history. It would certainly be more satisfactory to know the precise grounds, whether extrinsic or intrinsic, on which the date has been fixed.
With regard to the old Latin version, I will not undertake to vindicate it except against _one_ of the criticisms of H. C. C. He objects that _læden_ is translated _minare_. The word "minare" is used in the translation twice, once for _driving_, and once for _leading_; and I question whether the translator could have found a more appropriate word to serve this double purpose than the authentic verb _menare_ or _minare_, from which the French _mener_ has been derived.