Napoleon into Saxony, and was made prisoner in the celebrated fight of the nations at Leipzig. He did not return to France till the restoration of Louis XVIII., who greatly trusted him; but having accepted, during the Hundred Days, the direction of the national guard, he was sent into retirement, after forty-five years of active service and twenty-three campaigns. He afterwards was restored to favour, and took part in several important projects connected with the administration of the army. His historical and military publications are numerous. He died in a good old age, much esteemed.—T. J.
DUMÉRIL, André-Marie-Constant, a celebrated French physician and naturalist. He was born at Amiens on the 1st of January, 1774. He studied medicine in Paris, and in 1793 was appointed, after a concours, demonstrator in the anatomical school of Rouen. In 1794 he was appointed prosector in Paris. In 1801 he was elected at the concours professor of anatomy to the Faculty of Medicine of Paris. He was subsequently appointed assistant to Lacepede in the museum of natural history, as professor of herpetology and ichthyology; and, on the death of the latter in 1825, he alone occupied the chair. He was also appointed physician to the maison royale de sante. These important posts he occupied for many years, combining the functions of the physician and the naturalist with distinguished success. He changed his professorship of anatomy in the Faculty of Medicine in 1822 for that of physiology, and in 1830 for that of medical pathology, which he still held in 1856. He published numerous works both in medicine and natural history. He was one of the early editors of Cuvier's immortal Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée. His greatest work is his "Natural History of Reptiles," which was published in conjunction with M. Bibron. This great work occupies nine volumes, and contains one hundred and twenty plates. He was the author of an "Elementary Treatise on Natural History," published by order of the government; "Elements of the Natural Sciences;" and "Analytical Zoology, or a natural method of the classification of animals." He also wrote several medical works, and contributed articles to the dictionaries of natural history.—E. L.
DUMESNIL, Marie-Françoise, the most celebrated French tragedienne of the eighteenth century, was born on the 7th of October, 1711. Her father, a gentleman without fortune, occupied a modest manor-house in the forest of Écouves, near Alençon, and obtained, on account of the severity of his temper, the surname of Tete de Bronze. It might be this excessive strictness, combined with a taste which she had early acquired for the dramatic writers, that tempted her to forsake the paternal hearth. At any rate we find her, between the years 1733 and 1736, engaged with different companies of comedians; first at Strasbourg, and afterwards at Compiegne. In 1737 she made her first appearance on the French stage, in the character of Clytemnestra in Iphigenia in Aulis. Her success was from almost the first moment beyond question. It was evident that an actress of rare originality and power had arisen to delight the nation. As a proof of the strength of this opinion, she was immediately made a member of the society, contrary to the custom which required a certain period of probation. Mlle. Dumesnil owed more to nature than education. She trusted much to the inspiration of the moment, and was naturally most successful in the expression of violent, overmastering passion. It is said that in some of her most tragic representations, the house actually recoiled with fear. When Garrick visited Paris, he went to see Miles. Clairon and Dumesnil; and being asked what he thought of them, said that a more perfect actress than Mlle. Clairon could not be found, but that when Mlle. Dumesnil appeared on the stage you no longer thought of actresses and acting—it was Agrippina, and Semiramis, and Athalie, that you saw. She retired to private life in 1776, and died probably about the year 1803. The publication entitled, Mémoires de M. F. Dumesnil, ou réponse a ceux d'Hippolyte Clairon, is from the pen of Coste d'Arnobat, and is of little value.—R. M., A.
DUMONT, François, a French sculptor, born in Paris, 1688; died at Lille, 1726; studied under his father, and soon distinguished himself with his figure of David, and that of a Titan; executed several monuments and works for churches; and died in consequence of a fall, which happened whilst erecting the tomb of the duke of Melun. His son Edme, a pupil of Bouchardon, is the author of the well-known statue of Milon of Crotona essaying his strength, now in the Louvre. Edme died in 1775.—R. M.
DUMONT, Jacques Edme, the son of Edme, followed the paternal career and studied under Pajon. His statue of "Liberty" stood for a long time in the church of the Invalides. He executed several busts and tombs of the heroes and great men of his time, as also a few ideal or mythologic subjects. His son, Augustin Alexandre, who to the tuition of his father added that of Cartellier, continues to hold up the fame of this distinguished family of sculptors, and has produced, amongst many and very valuable works, the following—"The Genius on the July-Column;" "Francis I.;" "Louis Prince of Condé;" and "Louis Philippe," for the museum at Versailles; "The statues of Buffon, and of the two marshals, Bugeaud and Sucket," &c.—R. M.
DUMONT, Jean, called the Roman, a French historical painter, who was born about 1700. Having learned the principles of art in Paris, he proceeded, without means and on foot, to Rome, there to complete his artistical education. He took Michel Angelo as his type, but exaggerated all he imitated, besides too often abusing of the effect of foreshortening. Died a rector of the French Academy.—R. M.
DUMONT, Pierre Etienne Louis, born at Geneva in 1759; died at Milan in 1829. His father died early, leaving a widow with five children. She kept a small school for their support. Etienne was educated at the college of Geneva, with the view of his becoming a minister in the reformed church. In 1781 he was ordained, and, we learn from Sismondi and Romilly, a much admired preacher. In the following year he left Geneva for St. Petersburg, where he had three married sisters, and became the pastor of the French church there. In 1785 he left St. Petersburg for England, and there undertook the superintendence of the education of the children of Lord Shelburne. He now formed the acquaintance of Sheridan, &c. A sinecure office was made out for him, which gave him £500 a year. In 1788 he and Romilly visited Paris together. Mirabeau was at the time in his fullest strength. He was conducting the Courrier de Provence. The redaction of this journal fell into hands less fully employed; and Duroberg, ex-attorney-general of Geneva, was in fact the editor. With him Dumont became associated. In this journal were published Mirabeau's letters to his constituents, the last of which, described as one of the most eloquent compositions in the French language, is said to have been altogether Dumont's. The address of the assembly to the king, adopted on Mirabeau's motion the moment it was proposed, Romilly says, was altogether Dumont's. Dumont quitted France in 1791 before the death of Mirabeau, which occurred in the April of that year. On leaving Paris he went to pass a year with his brother at Geneva; and some time in 1792 went to England, where he resided chiefly at Bowood. In 1788 Romilly had sent him some of Bentham's writings. They were in French, not "French of Paris, but of Stratford-le-Bow." Dumont offered to rewrite portions. Through Mirabeau and the Courrier de Provence Dumont made Bentham's name and opinions known; and in 1792, on his coming to reside in England, commenced that more serious co-operation with Bentham, to which Bentham owes his reputation altogether on the continent, and very much in England. Of the "Traités de Legislation civile et penale," published by Dumont in 1802, three thousand copies were printed, and at once dispersed over the continent. Spain took off about three hundred, while less than one hundred was thought a sufficient number for England. In 1811 Dumont produced the "Theorie des peines et des recompenses." The manuscripts on which his work is founded had been in Bentham's desk since 1775. For more than twenty years kindly intercourse between Bentham and Dumont continued: but alas for human friendship! Bentham had heard that Dumont spoke of the shabbiness of his dinners, as compared with those of Lansdowne house. "In April, 1827," says Sir John Bowring, "Dumont called on Bentham, who would not see him." I took the message. "How he is changed," said Dumont, "he won't listen to a word from me!" Bentham refused to come down. He loudly called out that it was hard that Dumont's intrusion should prevent his taking a walk in his own library. "He does not understand a word of my meaning," he repeated more than once. Bentham's notion, that the interpreter through whom he had obtained a hearing from every jurist in Europe did not understand his meaning, is amusing enough. The extent of his debt to Dumont is not ascertainable. Dumont, in a preface in 1811, says that it is impossible to designate by
