(Vol. vii., p. 203.)
I am a little surprised at the slight knowledge K. K. seems to have of Mr.
Rigby--nor do I quite understand his statement: he says he possesses
sixty-seven letters of Mr. Rigby to his _own grandfather_, and that his
object is to discover, what he calls, the _counterpart of the
correspondence_: and then he talks of this _counter-correspondent_, as if
he knew no more of him than that he was an M. P., and "seems" to have done
so and so. Now this counter-correspondent must have been his grandfather:
and it would surely have simplified the inquiry if he had stated at once
the name of his grandfather, whose letters he is anxious to recover. Mr.
Rigby was one of the busiest politicians of the busy times in which he
lived. He did not, as K. K. supposes, reside _altogether_ in England. He
was chief secretary to the Duke of Bedford when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
from 1757 to 1761; in which period he obtained the lucrative sinecure of
Master of the Rolls in Ireland, which he enjoyed for upwards of twenty
years; during which he was a prominent figure in English and Irish
politics, and was long the leader of the Bedford party in the English House
of Commons. His correspondence would be likely to be, with any one he
confided in, important; and with any body, very amusing: for, though a deep
politician, he was of a gay, frank, jovial, and gossiping disposition. It
was he who, when some questions were carried against him in the Irish
parliament, and that some of his English friends wrote to ask him whether
he would not resign on such an affront, concealed his political feelings
under the jolly _bon-vivant_ style of answering: "What care I about their
affronts! there is nothing in the world I like half so well as
woodcock-shooting and claret-drinking, and _here_ I have both in
perfection: why should I resign?" He died in 1788; and was succeeded in his
estate at Mirtley, in Essex, by _Lieut.-Col. Hale Rigby_ (who, I think, but
am not sure, assumed the name of Rigby for the estate), and who had an only
daughter who married the late Lord Rivers; and whose son is now, I presume,
the representative of Mr. Rigby--the owner of Mirtley--and probably, if
they be in existence, the possessor of the "counter-correspondence" that K.
K. inquires after. I have been thus particular in answering, as far as I
can, K. K.'s _Query_, because I believe that any confidential
correspondence of Mr. Rigby must be very interesting, and I am glad to
suggest where K. K. may look for the "counterpart;" but, whether they be
obtained or not, I am inclined to believe that Mr. Rigby's own letters
would be worth publication, if, as I have already hinted, his correspondent
was really in either his private or political confidence.