"Close by a kitchen fire, a dog and a cat, Each a famous politician, Were meditating as they sat, Plans and projects of ambition. By the same fire were set to warm Fragments of their master's dinner; Temptations to alarm The frailty of a sinner. Clear prurient water streamed from Pompey's jaws, And Tabby looked demure, and lick'd her paws; And as two Plenipo's For fear of a surprise, When both have something to propose Examine one another's eyes; Or like two maids, though smit by different swains, In jealous conference o'er a dish of tea, Pompey and Tabby both cudgelled their brains Studying each other's physiognomy. Pompey endow'd with finer sense, Discovered in a cast of Tabby's face, A symptom of concupiscence Which made it a clear case When straight applying to the dawning passion, Pompey addressed her in this fashion: 'Both you and I, with vigilance and zeal, Becoming faithful dogs, and pious cats, Have guarded day and night this commonweal From robbery and rats. All that we get for this, heaven knows, Is a few bones and many blows; Let us no longer fawn and whine, Since we have talents and are able, Let us impose an equitable fine Upon our master's table; And, to be brief, Let us each choose a single dish, I'll be contented with roast beef, Take you that turbot--you love fish.' Thus every dog and cat agrees, When they can settle their own fees. Thus two contending chiefs are seen To agree at last in every measure: One takes the management of the marine, The other of the nation's treasure." [162] Sir Francis Dashwood, afterwards fifteenth Baron le Despencer (1708-1781). Dashwood was under no misapprehension as to his unsuitability for the post. "People will point at me in the streets and cry, 'There goes the worst Chancellor of the Exchequer that ever appeared,'" he said; and he wrote to Sir Andrew Mitchell on March 23, 1761: "The same strange fortune which made me Secretary-at-war five years and a half ago, has made me Chancellor of the Exchequer. It may, perhaps, at last make me Pope. I think I am equally fit to be the head of the Church as of the Exchequer." [163] George Montague Dunk, second Earl of Halifax (1716-1771).