[Greek: kaukos], a cup, is
far-fetched, and the most plausible origin is an Algonquin word
_kaw-kaw-was_, meaning to talk. Indian words and names have been popular
in America as titles for societies and clubs; cf. "Tammany" (see _Notes
and Queries._ sixth series, vols. xi. and xii.). In the United States
"caucus" is used strictly of a meeting either of party managers or of
party voters. Such might be a "nominating caucus," either for nominating
candidates for office or for selecting delegates for a nominating
convention. The caucus of the party in Congress nominated the candidates
for the offices of president and vice-president from 1800 till 1824,
when the convention system was adopted, and the place of the local
"nominating caucus" is taken by the "primaries" and conventions. The
word is used in America of the meetings of a party in Congress and other
legislative bodies and elsewhere which decide matters of policy and plan
campaigns. "Caucus" came first into use in Great Britain in 1878. The
Liberal Association of Birmingham (see LIBERAL PARTY) was organized by
Mr Joseph Chamberlain and Mr F. Schnadhorst on strict disciplinary
lines, more particularly with a view to election management and the
control of voters on the principle of "vote as you are told." This
managing body of the association, known locally as the "Six Hundred,"
became the model for other Liberal associations throughout the country,
and the Federation of Liberal Associations was organized on the same
plan. It was to this supposed imitation of the American political
"machine" that Lord Beaconsfield gave the name "caucus," and the name
came to be used, not in the American sense of a meeting, but of a
closely disciplined system of party organization, chiefly used as a
stock term of abuse applied by opponents to each other's party
machinery.

CAUDEBEC-EN-CAUX, a town of France, in the department of
Seine-Inferieure, 27 m. W.N.W. of Rouen by the Ouest-Etat railway. Pop.
(1906) 2141. It is situated on the right bank of the Seine, the tidal
wave of which (_mascaret_) can be well seen at this point. The chief
interest of the town lies in its church, a building of the 15th and the
early 16th centuries. Round its top run balustrades formed of Gothic
letters, which read as part of the Magnificat. Its west portal, the
decoration of the spire of the tower, and its stained glass are among
the features which make it one of the finest churches of the Rouen
dio