DUMONT, PIERRE ETIENNE LOUIS French political writer, was born at Geneva where his family had been citizens of good repute from the days of Calvin. He was educated for the ministry at the college of Geneva, and in 1781 was chosen one of the pastors of the city. The triumph of the aristocratic party in 1782, however, through the interference of the courts of France and Sardinia, made residence in his native town impossible, though he was not among the number of the proscribed. He therefore went to join his mother and sisters at St. Petersburg (Leningrad). In 1785 Lord Shelburne took him to London as tutor to his sons. There he met Fox, Sheridan, Lord Holland and Sir S. Romilly.
In 1788 Dumont visited Paris with Romilly. During a stay of two months in that city he met Mirabeau with whom he became intimate. On his return from Paris Dumont made the acquaint ance of Jeremy Bentham, and set himself to recast and edit the writings of the great English jurist in a form suitable for the ordinary reading public. This literary relationship was, accord ing to Dumont's own account, one of a somewhat peculiar char acter. All the fundamental ideas and most of the illustrative ma terial were supplied in the manuscripts of Bentham; Dumont's task was chiefly to abridge by striking out repeated matter, to sup ply lacunae, to secure uniformity of style, and to improve the French. The following works of Bentham were published under his editorship: Traite de legislation civile et penale (1802), Theorie des peines et des recompenses (181I), Tactique des assemblees legislatives (1815), Traite des preuves judiciaires (1823), and De l'organization judiciaire et de la codification (1828).
In the summer of 1789 Dumont went to Paris. He contributed to Mirabeau's journal, the Courier de Provence, supplying it with reports as well as original articles, and also furnishing Mirabeau with speeches to be delivered or rather read in the assembly, as related in his posthumous work entitled Souvenirs sur Mirabeau (1832).
In 1814 the restoration of Geneva to independence induced Dumont to return to his native place, and he soon became the leader of the supreme council. Many improvements in the judicial and penal systems of his native state are due to him.
See A. P. de Candolle, Notice sur la vie et les ecrits de M. Dumont (1829).