7 DECEMBER 1844, Page 18

ANTI.CONINGSBY.

THERE is a certain species of talk which is not worth much of itself but is curious to the examiner of mental phmnomena ; and such is the character of the composition of Anti-Coningsby. Indeed it illustrates in a singular degree Dr. WIGAN'S theory of the duality of the mind. When the author's more healthy brain pre- dominates we find some smartness of remark, a ludicrous though forced kind of joke, and a dash-along style such as shows the reckless and ready writer. When the diseased side gets the upper band, which it generally does, probability as regards life, and con- gruity even in the author's insane conception of it, are alike set at defiance. The wildest burlesque, the most dreamy German in his finest phrensy of diablerie, never displayed anything half so monstrous as the writer puts forward as a supposed picture of what may be public life in this country a few years hence ; and his social notions are still more absurd. It may be that the healthier side of the cerebrum planned a book which should throw ridicule upon the " gorgeous ' visions in the earlier works of his hero "Bengi- magne," (Ben the Great,) as well as upon the swagger of some late rhetorical displays, and the pretensions of Young England. But the diseased organ overcame the healthy, and marred the concep- tion; so that the result is a lifeless abortion, stale, fiat, and cer- tainly unprofitable.

The time of Anti-Coningsby is about 1850; the place, for the

most part London. The private and love part of the story may be passed. In politics, Mr. Coningsby and Sidonia have just come into office; and one of their first doings is to pass a bill to permit Jews to sit in Parliament, and then by bribery and delusion to swamp the Commons with Hebrews. This assembly next declares itself perpetual ; and not satisfied with that, the members vote themselves Lords. Sidonia then deposes the Queen and sets up as Emperor ; which causes the hero of the work, Sir Clarence Guildford, to head a revolt. This being put down, Guildford es- capes into the country : but Bengimagne, being left to his own courses, so excites the people, that the pear soon becomes ripe, or -rather rotten, and Sidonia has to "cut and run."

We have spoken of the style; which might be called vigorous and straightforward from beginning to end, if it were possible to abstract the mind from the meaning of words and fix the attention only upon their movement. Sometimes there is a good deal of smartness in the epithets and effect in the periods ; brought about, however, by a total disregard of rule or reader. This power over words, and a facility in the "making" of slang jokes, seem to mark the writer as a member of the periodical press : but if so, he is un- equal to a work of any length, or his mind is most assuredly in a dual state.

Some snatches of verse, and one entire chapter, seem to indi- cate that the author's vein is rather burlesque doggrel than prose tales. As the chapter in verse, descriptive of the apparition that appears to Bengimagne before his downfall, is tolerable of its kind, we will take a quotation from it, as the only specimen of Anti- Coningsby.

"Alone in his palace Sidonia sat, In a slouched tiara description of hat : With particular care And a gloomy air He twisted the corkscrew-curls of his hair, And frowned like a tiger disturbed in his lair, And ground his teeth, and appeared to swear. His features a shade or too paler than plaster, Portended, in foto, some shocking disaster.

flis position in fact, to the circumstance owing Already alluded to, daily was growing More ticklish and ticklish. He could not dissemble A strong inclination to shiver and tremble; Ideas of a prison Already had risen ; And Ben having taken "what was not his'n," Such tweaks conscientious In Sid the sententious Were quite salon le regle, you'll own, For people who rob, When they sit hob-a-nob

At eleven at night, with their conscience alone.

The lights burned blue-- A shadow they threw Of Benjamin's nose on the painted wall, Like a sausage-roll of gigantic size Perchance would appear to our wondering eyes!

A shape arose, a darkling shape, Between Ben and the door,—which cut off his escape. It advanced with strange unearthly walk, And a face that appeared blackened over with cork. It advanced, and the Emperor shook in his shoes, (For once in a way, a slang saying to use ;) His tongue clove to the roof of his mouth with the fright of it, AM a man's does next morn after making a night of it, Indulging in burgundy, hock, and champ :ape, And washing them down with punch a /a Romaine!

'The age of ruin is not past, But thine is near, ambitious Jew !

That crown behind the chimney cast, And better it will be for youl The country's going to the dogs, And wherefore should'st thou linger here ?

0, lay aside those ermined togs—

Hasten to the foreign steam-boat pier ! ' The spectre had spoken, and vanished like smoke, or Spreads a la fourchette, from the Emperor's sight, Who loosened the folds of his Young-England choker, And sat staring at—nothing, to left and to right."