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Untitled Article
the most critical circumstances , as to the sauce which best befitted a turbot with which the emperor had presented it . Mr . Dumont ' s best title to celebrity , and to the gratitude of the friends of humanity , is that he laboured with admirable acuteness , comprehension , and clearness , in the revision and publication of the manuscripts of the late Jeremy Bentham , whose death
has lately deprived his country of the greatest jurisconsult she ever possessed . Dumont was admirably fitted for such a task ; destitute of originality , of creative or persuasive power , his mind was sagacious , comprehensive , penetrating , and clear ; and he added to an enlightened good sense a fund of erudition . Such men are precious as the friends and counsellors of bold , impetuous , creative talent .
It is wonderful to observe in these Memoirs the facility with which Mirabeau laid hold of men of all descriptions , guided them , used them as his workmen ,, fascinated them , and carried them into the immense vortex of his activity . In 1784 , Dumont had occasion to meet Mirabeau in London : and he who
was afterwards to be the most extraordinary and powerful man of his time , despised and obscure as he then was , contrived to enlist in his service men of literary talent , barristers , and jurisconsults .
In 1788 Dumont again saw Mirabeau at Paris . The count of Mirabeau was then utterly blasted in public opinion by his writings , his adventures , his law-suits , his Bacchanalian orgies . He perceived in Dumont extensive information , tact , and ductilityi and immediately set himself to work , with all his arts of seduction , to attach him to his interests . Mirabeau already felt himself greater than his reputation , and was preparing for his work .
The pure and simple citizen of Geneva became the friend of the profligate count of Mirabeau , as he was already of Sir S . Romilly , one of the ornaments and the glory of the House of Commons and the English bar . Dumont assisted Mirabeau in conducting the ' Courrier de Provence ; ' he prepared , he arranged , he condensed legislative questions , sketched the plan of some of the speeches , attended the assembly , and gave excellent abstracts
of them , &c . Certain sensitive reviewers have been pleased to put themselves in a rage with Dumont for the share which he has claimed in the productions of the celebrated orator , and for his assertion that he composed the best speeches of the modern Demosthenes . The good Dumont did not deserve their indignation ; little idea had he of depreciating the merits of his friend , and it
was in sincerity of soul that he expressed himself as follows : — 4 Mirabeau was entitled to consider himself as the parent of all these productions , for he had presided over the execution of them , and but for his indefatigable activity they would never have existed / Elsewhere , he adds , ' when I have worked for
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5 H 2 Mimbeau .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 532, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/28/
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