Bonaparte always spoke angrily of the Directors he had turned off.  Their incapacity disgusted and astonished him.  “What simpletons! what a government!” he would frequently exclaim when he looked into the measures of the Directory.  “Bourrienne,” said he, “can you imagine anything more pitiable than their system of finance?  Can it for a moment be doubted that the principal agents of authority daily committed the most fraudulent peculations?  What venality! what disorder! what wastefulness! everything put up for sale:  places, provisions, clothing, and military, all were disposed of.  Have they not actually consumed 75,000,000 in advance?  And then, think of all the scandalous fortunes accumulated, all the malversations!  But are there no means of making them refund?  We shall see.”

In these first moments of poverty it was found necessary to raise a loan, for the funds of M. Collot did not last long, and 12,000,000 were advanced by the different bankers of Paris, who, I believe, were paid by bills of the receivers-general, the discount of which then amounted to about 33 per cent.  The salaries of the first offices were not very considerable, and did not amount to anything like the exorbitant stipends of the Empire.

Bonaparte’s salary was fixed at 500,000 francs.  What a contrast to the 300,000,000 in gold which were reported to have been concealed in 1811 in the cellars of the Tuileries!

In mentioning Bonaparte’s nomination to the Institute, and his affectation in putting at the head of his proclamation his title of member of that learned body before that of General-in-Chief, I omitted to state what value he really attached to that title.  The truth is that; when young and ambitious, he was pleased with the proffered title, which he thought would raise him in public estimation.  How often have we laughed together when he weighed the value of his scientific titles!  Bonaparte, to be sure, knew something of mathematics, a good deal of history, and, I need not add, possessed extraordinary military talent; but he was nevertheless a useless member of the Institute.

On his return from Egypt he began to grow weary of a title which gave him so many colleagues.  “Do you not think,” said he one day to me, “that there is something mean and humiliating in the words, ’I have the honour to be, my dear Colleague’!  I am tired of it!” Generally speaking, all phrases which indicated equality displeased him.  It will be recollected how gratified he was that I did not address him in the second person singular on our meeting at Leoben, and also what befell M. de Cominges at Bale because he did not observe the same precaution.

The figure of the Republic seated and holding a spear in her hand, which at the commencement of the Consulate was stamped on official letters, was speedily abolished.  Happy would it have been if Liberty herself had not suffered the same treatment as her emblem!  The title of First Consul made him despise that of Member of the Institute.  He no longer entertained the least predilection for that learned body, and subsequently he regarded it with much suspicion.  It was a body, an authorised assembly; these were reasons sufficient for him to take umbrage at it, and he never concealed his dislike of all bodies possessing the privilege of meeting and deliberating.