Note 249 — JOURNAL OF ELIZABETH LADY HOLLAND (continued 5)

Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont (1759–1829), born at Geneva. His family was French, but had fled to Switzerland in the sixteenth century to escape religious persecution. He became a preacher, and came to England about 1783 to superintend the education of Lord Lansdown’s sons. He there made the acquaintance of Bentham, whose secretary he became later in life. He espoused the cause of the French Revolution with enthusiasm at its commencement, but became terrified by its excesses, and left France soon after his friend Mirabeau’s death.