Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont

Pierre Étienne Louis Dumont (18 July 1759 – 29 September 1829), known as Étienne Dumont, sometimes anglicised as Stephen Dumont, was a Genevan political writer. He is chiefly remembered as the French editor of the writings of the English philosopher and social reformer, Jeremy Bentham.

Dumont was born at Geneva, of which his family had been citizens of good repute from the days of Calvin. He was educated for the ministry at the Collège de Genève, and in 1781 was chosen one of the pastors of the city. Then politics suddenly turned the course of his life. He belonged to the liberals or democrats, and the triumph of the aristocratic party, through the interference of the courts of France and Sardinia, made continued residence in Geneva impossible, though he was not among the number of the proscribed. He went to join his mother and sisters at St Petersburg. In this he was probably influenced in part by the example of his townsman Pierre Lefort, the first tutor, minister, and general of the Tsar. At St Petersburg he was for eighteen months pastor of the French church.

In 1785 he moved to London, Lord Shelburne, then a minister of state, having invited him to undertake the education of his sons. It was at the house of Lord Shelburne, now 1st marquess of Lansdowne, where he was treated as a friend or rather member of the family, that he became acquainted with many illustrious men, amongst others Fox, Sheridan, Lord Holland and Sir Samuel Romilly. With the last of these he formed a close and enduring friendship, which had an important influence on his life and pursuits.

In 1788 Dumont visited Paris with Romilly. During a stay of two months in that city he had almost daily intercourse with Mirabeau, and a certain affinity of talents and pursuits led to an intimacy between two persons diametrically opposed to each other in habits and in character.

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