RIGBY 



RIGHTS OF MAN 



V of Spain, Charles XII of Sweden, 

 Augustus II and Augustus III of 

 Poland were among his sitters, 

 while he also portrayed many 

 eminent artists and litterateurs of 

 his time. See Bossuet ; Edelinck, 

 G. ; Fleury ; Philip V of Spain. 



Rigby, RICHARD (1722-88). 

 British politician. A son of Richard 

 Rigby, of Mistley Hall, Essex, his 

 father's wealth enabled him to 

 secure a seat in the House of 

 Commons in 1745. He soon be- 

 came one of the followers of the 

 duke of Bedford, the group being 

 known as the Bloomsbury gang, 

 and under its chief held political 

 positions in Ireland. From 1768- 

 84 he was paymaster-general, accu- 

 mulating great wealth while hold- 

 ing that office. Rigby died at Bath, 

 April 8, 1788. Mr. Rigby, a 

 character in Disraeli's Coningsby, 

 is thought to be a pen portrait of 

 John Wilson Croker. 



Rigel. Second star in the con- 

 stellation of Orion, Beta Orionis. 

 Its name means the foot. It is a 

 first magnitude star, sixth in 

 brightness in the heavens, and 

 distinguished by its steel blue 

 colour. The star is a spectroscopic 

 binary, and it has been calculated 

 to have a brightness equal to 

 8,000 suns. See Constellation. 



Rigging. All the ropes and 

 chains on a ship used to support 

 or operate the masts, sails, etc. 

 Standing rigging comprises the 

 shrouds and stays which support 

 the masts. Once fixed they are 

 subject only to adjustment or re- 

 newal ; they are made of wire or 

 hemp. Wire ropes are painted or 

 galvanised, hemp ropes are tarred, 

 and, in both cases, they are 

 wrapped with tarred or painted 

 canvas and also wrapped more 

 closely with marline or spun yarn. 



Running rigging includes all the 

 movable ropes or chains which are 

 used in operating the upper masts, 

 yards, sails, etc. The chief of these 

 ropes, which are usually made of 

 Manila hemp, are the braces by 

 which the yards are controlled, 

 and the halyards by which yards or 

 sails are hoisted. The term rigging 

 is applied to the whole system of 

 cordage, masts, and sails of the 

 ship ; it is used sometimes in a 

 limited sense for the shrouds. 



In its widest sense the rigging de- 

 termines the character of a sailing 

 ship. The earlier vessels were 

 square rigged, with their sails 

 arranged across the centre-line of 

 the ship. The fastest vessels of 

 this type were the clippers engaged 

 in the tea trade. See Ship; Tackle; 

 Yachting. 



Right. In political speech, the 

 party or section of a party holding 

 views of a conservative or moderate 



Hyacinthe Rigaud, French painter 



Self-portrait 



character as opposed to the more 

 extreme ones of the left. Its use 

 in this sense arose in France during 

 the .Revolution. When the Na- 

 tional Assembly formed itself at 

 Versailles in 1789, the moderate 

 men, quite by accident, found 

 seats on the right of the hall, and 

 the extremists on the left. This 

 arrangement persisted and became 

 part of the political system of 

 France, so much so that the words 

 right and left became synonyms 

 for moderate and advanced opin- 

 ions respectively, and are so used 

 (especially in France) to-day. See 

 Left; Politics. 



Right Ascension. In astro- 

 nomy, the measurement in degrees, 

 minutes, and seconds of distances 

 along the celestial equator from a 

 fixed point on that equator. The 

 plane of the terrestrial equator ex- 

 tended indefinitely to the stars is 

 called the plane of the celestial 

 equator. As we reckon points on 

 the terrestrial equator as so many 

 degrees E. or W. of Greenwich, so 

 points on the celestial equator are 

 measured by reference to the point 

 on the equator occupied by the 

 sun at the vernal equinox, the first 

 point in Aries. The right ascension 

 of a star is stated in hours, minutes, 

 seconds, though measured in de- 

 grees, minutes, and seconds, 15 

 degrees being equal to one hour. 

 The decimation of a star together 

 with its right ascension fixes its 

 position. See Decimation. i 



Right of Way. In English law, 

 a form of easement involving pri- 

 vate right to pass over land in the 

 possession of others. By the Pre- 

 scription Act, 1832, it is enacted 

 that uninterrupted enjoyment of a 

 right of way for 40 years is an 

 indefeasible right, on condition 

 that -it is proved by user down to 

 the time of the commencement of 

 the action, unless the consent in 

 writing of the owner has been ob- 



tained to the enjoyment of the 

 right. By the same Act " no claim 

 by custom, prescription, or grant, 

 to any way or other easement . . . 

 which has been enjoyed twenty 

 years without interruption shall be 

 defeated by showing the commence- 

 ment of the right within the time 

 of legal memory." 



A private right of way across a 

 particular piece of land may be 

 claimed by immemorial usage, 

 or be granted to an individual by 

 special permission. If an owner 

 grant a piece of land in the middle 

 of his field the grantee has the im- 

 plicit right to cross the grantor's 

 land without thereby committing 

 trespass. This is called a way of 

 necessity. Strictly speaking, a 

 right of way means a private way, 

 but in popular use the term is some- 

 times extended to include, for 

 example, the right of the public to 

 use a particular pathway through 

 land in private ownership See 

 Easement ; Highway ; Prescription. 

 Rights. In political philosophy, 

 privileges belonging to the mem- 

 bers of a state, or community. Of 

 the various kinds of rights may 

 be mentioned natural, civil, poli- 

 tical, and religious. The origin, 

 nature, and extent of these rights 

 occupies a large place in the writ- 

 ings of political philosophers, such 

 as Hobbes and Rousseau. In Eng- 

 lish history, the measure arranging 

 the settlement of 1688 is known as 

 the Bill of Rights. It was preceded 

 by the Declaration of Rights. The 

 term has been used also for other 

 documents embodying the political 

 ideas of a nation. See Bill of 

 Rights ; Rousseau ; State. 



Rights of Man, THE. Exposi- 

 tion of democratic doctrine by 

 Thomas Paine (q.v.). The first part 

 was published in London in 1791, 

 and the second part in 1792. The 

 author was tried before Lord Ken- 

 yon at the king's bench for issuing 

 " a false, scandalous, malicious, 

 and seditious libel," and although 

 ably defended by T. Erskine, was 

 found guilty, but fled to France, 

 where the book had prepared him 

 a warm welcome. Written as a 

 reply to E. Burke' s Reflections on 

 the French Revolution, it is a 

 vigorous defence of the principles 

 which inspired that movement, 

 had an enormous circulation, and 

 was widely accepted among the 

 less educated classes as a text-book 

 of democracy, although its blat- 

 ancy and coarseness render it 

 greatly inferior to the contempo- 

 rary and more scholarly work of 

 William Godwin. 



i Rights of Man and of the Cit- 

 izen, DECLARATION OF THE. French 

 Revolutionary decree issued by 

 the Assembly and forced on the 



