Dumont

Dumont, PIERRE ÉTIENNE LOUIS, the apostle of Benthamism, was born at Geneva, 18th July 1759, and in 1783 accepted the charge of the French Protestant Church at St Petersburg. In 1785 he became tutor in London to the sons of Lord Shelburne, afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne. His superior talents, liberal sentiments, and fine character soon recommended him to the illustrious Whigs of that period; with Romilly, in particular, he formed a close friendship. During the early years of the French Revolution, Dumont was at Paris, where he became greatly attached to Mirabeau, regarding whom he has given the world much valuable information in his posthumous Souvenirs sur Mirabeau (1832). In this work he claims to have composed for him many of Mirabeau's most eloquent speeches. In 1791 Dumont returned to England, and formed an intimacy with Bentham (q.v.). This was the event of his life. Deeply convinced of the value of Bentham's views on legislation, he requested him to allow him to arrange and edit his unpublished writings on this subject. Bentham gave him his manuscripts, which Dumont laboured earnestly to abridge, elucidate, correct, and simplify. The results appeared in his Traité de Législation Civile et Pénale (1802), Théorie des Peines et des Récompenses (1811), Tactique des Assemblées Législatives (1816), Préuves Judiciaires (1823), and the Organisation Judiciaire et Codification (1823). Dumont returned to Geneva in 1814, and became a member of the representative council. He died at Milan, September 30, 1829.