Rigaud produced a great number of portraits so good -that Le Brun advised him to give up going to Rome and to devote himself wholly to this class of work. Rigaud, although he had obtained the Grand Prix, followed this advice, and for sixty-two years painted at the rate of thirty to forty portraits a year, all carried through with infinite care by his own hand. His portraits of himself, of the sculptor Desjardins (Louvre), of Mignard and of Le Brun (Louvre) may be cited as triumphs of a still more attractive, if less imposing, character than that displayed in his grand representations of Bossuet (Louvre) and Louis XIV. (Louvre), while his beautiful portraits of his mother, Marie Serre (Louvre), must for ever remain amongst the masterpieces of French art. Rigaud, although the great successes to which he owed his fame were won without exception in portrait painting, persisted in pressing the Academy to admit him as an historical painter. This delayed his reception, and it was not until January 1700 that he succeeded in obtaining his desire. He presented as his diploma works a St Andrew (Louvre) and the portrait of Desjardins already mentioned, exhibited at the salon of 1704, and filled in turn all the various posts of academical distinction. He died on the 27th of December 1743, having never recovered from the shock of losing his wife in the previous year. He had many pupils, and his numerous works had the good fortune to be reproduced by the greatest of French engravers—Edelinck, Drevet, Wille, Audran and others.
RIGBY, RICHARD (1722–1788), English politician, was the
only son of Richard Rigby (d. 1730) of Mistley Hall, Essex, a merchant who made a fortune through his Connexion with the South
Sea Company. Young Rigby became an associate of Frederick,
prince of Wales, and entered parliament in 1745. He is chiefly
known to fame through his connexion with John Russell, 4th
duke of Bedford, and the “Bloomsbury gang,” his audacity
earning for him the title of the “brazen boatswain” of the
“crew.” In 1758 he became secretary to Bedford, who was
lord lieutenant of Ireland, and in the following year he was
given the sinecure office of master of the rolls for Ireland.
Following the political fortunes of the duke he became vice treasurer of Ireland in 1765, and in 1768 he obtained the lucrative
position of paymaster-general of the forces. Rigby often spoke
in parliament, and in 1769 he shared in the opposition to Wilkes.
In 1784 he was obliged to resign his position as paymaster general,
and he was somewhat surprised and embarrassed when
he was requested to pay over the large sum of public money
which was in his possession. He left a great fortune when he
died at Bath on the 8th of April 1788. A rapacious and unscrupulous
politician, Wraxall says Rigby “possessed talents
for addressing a popular assembly which were sustained by a
confidence that nothing could abash.”
RIGG, JAMES HARRISON (1821–1909), English Nonconformist
divine, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne on the 16th of
January 1821. His father was a Wesleyan minister and sent
his son to the Old Kingswood School, Bristol, where he subsequently
became an assistant teacher. In 1845 he entered
the Wesleyan ministry, and during the agitation of 1849–52
wrote successfully in exposition and defence of the polity of,
Methodism. In 1857 he published Modern Anglican Theology,
an acute criticism of the writings of Coleridge, Hare, Maurice,
Kingsley and ]owett. The book was timely and well received,
and though Kingsley at first resented the criticism he afterwards
became a cordial friend of the writer. Rigg had now become a
leading figure in his own church, and in 1868 was appointed
Principal of the Westminster Wesleyan Training College for
day-school teachers, a post which he held with growing distinction
for 35 years. In 1870 he was elected on the first School
Board for London, one of the most remarkable assemblies
of modern times, and took an important part in providing
the syllabus of religious instruction and framing the religious
settlement for teachers.
In 1873 he wrote National Education in its Social Conditions and Aspects. A resolute opponent of secular education, he maintained that the state ought not to compete with the churches, but welcome their aid in the work of national education. He was also strongly against the adoption of a rigid universal code. In 1886 he sat on the Royal Commission of Education, and was brought into close contact with Matthew Arnold, and with Dean Stanley, Bishop Temple and other Anglican prelates, who held him in high esteem. In 1877 he became chairman of the second London district of Methodism, and for fourteen years helped to make the history of his church in the home counties. In 1878 he was elected president of conference and again in 1892. From 1881 he was ministerial treasurer of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, taking an active part in its work. He resigned his principal ship in 1903 and died at Brixton on the 17th of April 1909. Dr Rigg was universally honoured as the Nestor of Wesleyan Methodism, in the development of which he had taken a foremost part for over 60 years. His Connexional Economy is a standard work, and his Living Wesley a most discriminating study of the character and work of its subject. His Oxford High Anglicanism (1895) showed how keenly he followed modern developments in the Church of England. His lifelong principle was that Methodism is “a church friendly to all, but owing allegiance to none.”
See Life by John Telford (London, 1909).
RIGGING (A.S. wrigan or wrihan, to clothe), the general
term, in connexion with ships, for the whole apparatus of spars
(including both masts and yards), sails and cordage, by which
the force of the wind is utilized to move the hull against the
resistance, and with the support, of the water. (See also
Ship and Shipbuilding). The word is often used as meaning
the cordage only, but this is a too limited, and even an irrational,
use of the term. A ship is not rigged until she is provided
with all the spars, sails and cordage required to move
and control the hull. The straight or curved pieces of wood
or metal, called davits, from which the boats carried along
the bulwarks are hung, belong to the rigging. All are fastened
directly or indirectly to the hull, and all are required to complete
her “clothing.” Vessels of all classes, from the smallest
sailing-boat up to the largest ship, are classed according to
the particular combination of their spars, sails and cordage.
“Cutter,” “brig,” or “ship,” are only convenient abbreviations
for “cutter-rigged,” “brig-rigged,” or “ship-rigged.”
They are of such or such a “rig.” It is strictly correct to
speak of the rigging of a mast or a yard, or of a boom, when
all that is meant is the special set of ropes, of whatever size
or material, required to keep them in their place, or withdraw
them from it, when they have to be moved in the ship. In
such cases the part is looked upon as a whole, and is mentally
abstracted from the total of the vessel’s rigging.
The basis of all rigging is the mast (q.v.), whether it be composed
of one or of many pieces of wood or metal. The mast
is held up and controlled by ropes, which are classed together
as the “standing rigging,” because they are “that part (of
the whole rigging) which is made fast, and not hauled upon”
(Admiral Smyth, Sailor’s Word-Book). This must be understood
subject to the restriction that in the case of a mast composed
of several parts, including topmast and topgallant mast,
these subdivisions may be, and often are, lowered. The back stays,
and other ropes which keep the top and topgallant
masts in place, are therefore only “comparative fixtures.”
The bowsprit, though it does not rise from the deck but projects
from the bow, is in fact a mast. The masts, including the
bowsprit, support all the sails, whether they hang from the
“yards,” which are spars slung to the mast, or from “gaffs,”
which are spars projecting from the mast, or, as in the case of
the “jibs,” are triangular sails, travelling on ropes called
“stays,” which go from the foremast to the bowsprit- and
suspended by halliard’s. The bowsprit is subdivided like other
masts. The bowsprit proper corresponds to the lower fore-,
main- or mizzen-mast. The jib-boom, which is movable and
projects beyond the bowsprit, corresponds to a topmast;
the flying jib-boom, which also is movable and projects beyond
the jib-boom, answers to a topgallant mast. The whole body
of ropes by which the yards, booms and sails are manipulated
