The First Consul paid his own private bills very punctually; but he was always tardy in settling the accounts of the contractors who bargained with Ministers for supplies for the public service.  He put off these payments by all sorts of excuses and shufflings.  Hence arose immense arrears in the expenditure, and the necessity of appointing a committee of liquidation.  In his opinion the terms contractor and rogue were synonymous.  All that he avoided paying them he regarded as a just restitution to himself; and all the sums which were struck off from their accounts he regarded as so much deducted from a theft.  The less a Minister paid out of his budget the more Bonaparte was pleased with him; and this ruinous system of economy can alone explain the credit which Decres so long enjoyed at the expense of the French navy.

On the subject of religion Bonaparte’s ideas were very vague.  “My reason,” said he, “makes me incredulous respecting many things; but the impressions of my childhood and early youth throw me into uncertainty.”  He was very fond of talking of religion.  In Italy, in Egypt, and on board the ‘Orient’ and the ‘Muiron’, I have known him to take part in very animated conversations on this subject.

He readily yielded up all that was proved against religion as the work of men and time:  but he would not hear of materialism.  I recollect that one fine night, when he was on deck with some persons who were arguing in favour of materialism, Bonaparte raised his hand to heaven and, pointing to the stars, said, “You may talk as long as you please, gentlemen, but who made all that?” The perpetuity of a name in the memory of man was to him the immortality of the soul.  He was perfectly tolerant towards every variety of religious faith.

Among Bonaparte’s singular habits was that of seating himself on any table which happened to be of a suitable height for him.  He would often sit on mine, resting his left arm on my right shoulder, and swinging his left leg, which did not reach the ground; and while he dictated to me he would jolt the table so that I could scarcely write.

Bonaparte had a great dislike to reconsider any decision, even when it was acknowledged to be unjust.  In little as well as in great things he evinced his repugnance to retrograde.  An instance of this occurred in the affair of General Latour-Foissac.  The First Consul felt how much he had wronged that general; but he wished some time to elapse before he repaired his error.  His heart and his conduct were at variance; but his feelings were overcome by what he conceived to be political necessity.  Bonaparte was never known to say, “I have done wrong:”  his usual observation was, “I begin to think there is something wrong.”