By the Imperial decrees of December 29th, 1810, and January 12th, 1811, it was ordained that the purchase of tobacco in leaf and the fabrication and sale, whether wholesale or retail, of manufactures of tobacco, should be exclusively confined to the Administration of Indirect Taxes (Régie des Droits Unis) in all the departments of France. At present the Régie has in operation 16 large manufactories, 27 “magasins de culture,” and 4 “magasins de transit.” It employs over 19,000 workpeople, of whom about 80 per cent. are women and girls. The usual daily earnings are, for men, from 2_s._ 7_d._ to 3_s._ 11_d._, and for women, from 1_s._ 2_d._ to 2_s._ 4_d._ For faithful or exemplary services, the workpeople receive annually rewards, varying in amounts from 15_s._ to 20_l._ Mr. Scidmore, the United States Consular Agent in Paris, gives the following description of the manner in which the operations of the Régie are carried on. At the beginning of each year the Minister of Finance designates the number of hectares upon which, and the departments within which, the cultivation of tobacco may be undertaken during the following season. The last ministerial decree upon this subject confines the privilege to the departments of the Alpes Maritimes, Bouches du Rhône, Dordogne, Gironde, Ille-et-Vilaine, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Nord, Pas de Calais, Puy de Dôme, Hautes-Pyrénées, Haute-Saöne, Savoie, Haute Savoie, and Var. In the month of October or November, an agent of the Régie proceeds to the communes among which the prefects have apportioned the allotments, and receives the declaration of every proprietor desiring to profit by the authorization. A Commission, composed of the prefect, of the director of indirect taxes, a superior agent of cultivation, a member of the council general, and of a member of the council of the arrondissement, not being planters, then examine the declarations, and admit, reduce, or reject them. After a planter is accorded permission to cultivate, he is subjected to close official supervision, and to numerous stringent regulations concerning details as to the prohibition to sow any other seed than that furnished to him by the administration, the mode of planting, &c.; and, in addition to the surveillance as to these matters, two official inventories are taken of the growing crop—the first to ascertain the extent of land under cultivation and the number of plants, the second to determine the number of leaves for which the planter will be held accountable. When the tobacco has been gathered in a manner described by regulations of minute detail, the planter takes it to the magazine of the Régie, where it is subjected to the inspection of a commission of five disinterested experts, who separate the leaves into three portions, according to quality; the planter is then paid for each portion in accordance with the tariff of prices promulgated by the Minister of Finance.