| Chapter 2: | Dupin’s Background and Family |
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An anonymous rhyme was written in a similar vein:
Stale bread [du pain, or ‘Dupin’] for those out of favour, fresh rolls [du pain mollet] for the rest,
Presented with a chair of office, he accepts,
And all Paris says: it’s stale bread [du pain rassis, a play on the words Dupin rassis, ‘Dupin reseated’]. (ADN 4 J, packet 1 of 2; PJ 6)
The fact remains that Dupin aîné was a highly respected lawyer and is still considered to have left his mark on his profession. In the preface to his Du droit d’aînesse (1826), dedicating the work to ‘mes frères’ (my brothers), he spoke of the influence of his parents on him and his brothers and how they inculcated in them the ‘desire to be useful to our fellow-citizens and our country’. He wrote the book because of an 1826 bill that reestablished the rights of the eldest child. Dupin was strongly opposed to this attempt to return from a civil state to an ecclesiastical one—the Ancien Régime.
There was great affection between the future Baron Dupin and his elder brother, and Charles greatly respected Dupin aîné, whom he addressed as ‘Mon cher Dupin’—the big brother who often protected him from their father’s wrath. In 1814, young Charles wrote to his brother, ‘It seems that our father has particular and special reasons for not writing to me. No news for a year. Non sum dignus [I am unworthy; this expression precedes the Latin Roman Catholic Communion]’. His brother replied that their father was very busy, to which Charles retorted, ‘I don’t take