“‘Here am I,’ exclaimed RALEIGH, after vainly trying to get at the rights of a squabble in the courtyard of the Tower, ‘employed in writing a true history of the world, when I cannot ascertain the truth of what happens under my own window.’ Here is the great restorer of Roman history—who, by the way, prided himself on his knowledge of England—hurried into the strangest misconception of contemporary events and personages, and giving vent to a series of depreciatory misstatements, without pausing to verify the assumed groundwork of his patriotic wrath. His description of ‘the most shameful pasquinade,’ and his ignorance of the very title, prove that he had never seen it. If he had, he would also have known that the scene is laid at Weimar, not at Göttingen, and that the satire is almost exclusively directed against a portion of the dramatic literature of his country, which all rational admirers must admit to be indefensible. The scene in _The Rovers_, in which the rival heroines, meeting for the first time at an inn, swear eternal friendship and embrace, is positively a feeble reflection of a scene in GOETHE’S _Stella_; and no anachronism can exceed that in SCHILLER’S _Cabal und Liebe_, when Lady Milford, after declaring herself the daughter of the Duke of Norfolk who rebelled against Queen Elizabeth, is horrified on finding that the jewels sent her by the Grand Duke have been purchased by the sale of 7000 of his subjects to be employed in the American war.[3] “Amongst the prose contributions to _The Anti-Jacobin_, there is one in which, independently of direct evidence, the peculiar humour of CANNING is discernible,—the pretended report of the meeting of the Friends of Freedom at the Crown and Anchor Tavern.[4] The plan was evidently suggested by TICKELL’S _Anticipation_, in which the debate on the Address at the opening of the Session was reported beforehand with such surprising foresight, that some of the speakers, who were thus forestalled, declined to deliver their meditated orations. “At the meeting of the Friends of Freedom, ERSKINE, whose habitual egotism could hardly be caricatured, is made to perorate as follows, &c.... A long speech is given to MACKINTOSH, who, under the name of _Macfungus_, after a fervid sketch of the Temple of Freedom which he proposes to construct on the ruins of ancient establishments, proceeds with kindling animation, &c....[5]