Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
S.A. Bent, comp. Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men. 1887.
André M. J. Dupin
[A French lawyer and legislator; born in the Nièvre, February, 1783; elected to the Chamber of Deputies, 1826; opposed the ordinances which caused the revolution of 1830; member of the first cabinet of Louis Philippe; president of the Chamber, from which he retired, 1852; member of the Academy; procureur-général of France, 1857; died November, 1865.]
A sword, the hilt of which is at Rome, and the point everywhere (Une épée, dont la poignée est à Rome, et la pointe partout).
This comparison of the Jesuits which Dupin made in a legal argument in 1825 caused some sensation, but it was not original. Diderot in a letter to Mlle. Voland quoted it word for word from the Abbé Raynal, and J. B. Rousseau exhumed it from the “Anti-Coton” of d’Aubigné, a Protestant of the sixteenth century, who attributed to a Pole the saying, “The Society of Jesus is a sword, the blade of which is in France, and the handle in Rome.” Prince Napoleon (Jérôme) said of the same society, in a debate on the clergy in the French Assembly in 1877, “Sow Jesuits, you will reap revolt” (Semez du jésuite, moissonez du revolté).When the point was raised after the revolution of July in 1830, whether Louis Philippe should take the title of “Philip VII.,” Dupin declared in an antithetical form, which was afterwards, like many a catch-word, repeated on every conceivable occasion: “The Duc d’Orleans is called to the throne not because, but in spite of, his being a Bourbon” (non parce que, mais quoique). Dominique de Gourgues, a Protestant gentleman, fitted out three ships at his own expense, and sailed for Florida, where the Spaniards had executed many of his co-religionists “because they were heretics, although French” (parce que hérétiques, quoique Français). He took two forts from the Spaniards, and executed eight hundred men, “because they were assassins, although Spaniards” (quoique Espagnols, parce qu’ assassins).Berryer said to the President of the Chamber, in 1851, while Louis Napoleon was preparing the coup d’état, “Show me a little door, by which one could get into the Chamber, and bring you support in case you were attacked:” Dupin replied, “I am just looking for one by which I could get out.”
