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RIGBY ( Richard ). Authentic memoirs and a sketch of the real character of the late Right Honorable

Currency:EUR Category:Antiques / Books & Manuscripts Start Price:10.00 EUR Estimated At:80.00 - 100.00 EUR
RIGBY ( Richard ). Authentic memoirs and a sketch of the real character of the late Right Honorable

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Auction Date:2012 Oct 19 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:38 Molesworth Street, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
RIGBY ( Richard ). Authentic memoirs and a sketch of the real character of the late Right Honorable Richard Rigby. Printed for J. Debrett … J. and T. Egerton … and J. Bew …, 1788FIRST EDITION, pp (6), 24, without half-title, 8vo, recent wrapper : very good-nice copy. ESTC locates six copies : L, O, C / P, MH-H, CtY-LW. None in Ireland. Written "as a monumental record of sincere and disinterested friendship !". Rigby (1722–88), MP and chief secretary for Ireland. Sir G. O. Trevelyan wrote of him that the only virtue he possessed was that he drank fair. An unblushing placeman during the worst period of parliamentary corruption, his undoubted talent for addressing a popular assembly was sustained by a confidence that nothing could abash. His education was defective, but he was ready in rough retort, and Cowper relates a characteristic altercation in which Rigby undertook to teach the rudiments of English to Beckford (a notoriously incorrect speaker) who had ventured to correct his Latin. Wraxall depicts with nice discrimination Rigby's behaviour in the Commons. ‘When in his place he was invariably habited in a full-dressed suit of clothes, commonly of a purple or dark colour, without lace or embroidery, close buttoned, with his sword thrust through the pocket. His countenance was very expressive, but not of a genius ; still less did it indicate timidity or modesty ; all the comforts of the pay office seemed to be eloquently depictured in it. His manner, rough yet frank, bold but manly, admirably set off whatever sentiments he uttered in parliament. … Whatever he meant he expressed, indeed, without circumlocution or declamation. There was a happy audacity about his forehead which must have been the gift of nature; art could not obtain it by any efforts. He seemed neither to fear nor even to respect the House, whose composition he well knew, and to the members of which assembly he never appeared to give credit for any portion of virtue, patriotism, or public spirit. Far from concealing these sentiments, he insinuated, or even pronounced them without disguise, and from his lips they neither excited surprise nor even commonly awakened reprehension.’ In 1844, in the pages of ‘Coningsby,’ Disraeli bestowed the name of Rigby on his ideal type of corrupt wire-puller and political parasite (DNB).ALSO WITH THIS LOT: (1) [COTES ( Humphrey )]. An enquiry into the conduct of a late right honourable commoner [William Pitt, Earl of Chatham]. Dublin : Printed for G. Faulkner, P. Wilson, S. Powell, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlain, J. Hoey, Jun, J. Potts, J. Mitchell, and J. Williams. [1766]. FIRST (ONLY) IRISH EDITION, pages 39, (1, blank), 8vo, recent paper wrapper : with a small stamp on blank verso of title-page, otherwise a very good copy. The only Irish printing : ESTC locates 8 copies : L, Dk, Di(2), Dt(2) / CSmH, CU-BANC. There were a number of London printings of the same year. Sabin, Goldsmiths' and Higgs all have a London edition only. Generally accepted as compiled by Cotes and John Almon, the publisher and journalist, with assistance from Richard Grenville-Temple, Earl Temple, Pitt's brother-in-law and patron of Almon. Pitt and Temple had openly disagreed and Temple retaliated with a pamphlet war. This present work was successfuu and ran through at least 5 impressions in its first year. In 1766 Pitt had declared his lack of confidence in the Rockingham government, announced that he "denied the right of the mother country to tax the colonies" and maintained that taxation was 'no part of the governing or legislative power' and recommended that the Stamp Act be repealed. In July of that year Rockingham was dismissed and Pitt stepped in with his agenda which included in addition to the American policies to form an alliance against the Bourbons, to transfer the power of the East India Company to the Crown and to provide better government for Ireland.(2)ENGLISH PRE 1801; HISTORY; ENGLAND; IRELAND; BIOGRAPHY; DUBLIN PRINTED; ENGLAND; ; ; ; ;