ecially
advised against the carrying in their baggage of tobacco and matches,
the manufacture of these being a government monopoly; French
_allumettes_ are _very_ bad, but it is better to throw away your
cherished boxes of neat wax-matches before entering the barriers. With
these exceptions, the officials are tolerant of the introduction of
contraband articles in small quantities,--a half-bottle of ordinary
wine, two pounds of fish caught by hook and line, a pound of salt, a
bundle of hay or straw, etc. The agents act under the authority of the
Prefet of the Seine; the objects submitted to this duty, intended for
local consumption, are designated by the Conseil Municipal and approved
by the government. The officials have the right of search; dutiable
objects to be carried through the city are entitled to "escort" by the
agents of the octroi, or they may pay the tax at the entrance with the
privilege of having it refunded when leaving. All the communes of the
Department of the Seine, considered as the banlieue of Paris, have the
right of levying an entrance duty upon brandies, spirits, and liquors.
The penalties provided for smuggling are the confiscation of the article
and of the means used in its transportation; a fine of from a hundred to
two hundred francs, and even imprisonment, if the attempt has been made
by means of escalade or subterranean proceedings, or with prepared
methods of concealment. All dutiable articles must be declared, no
matter how small the quantity carried.

As both the city and the State are interested in the collection of this
tax, the agents have a double mandate to execute their duties, and the
contraventions of the law are pursued at one time in the name of the
public Treasury and the octroi, and at another in the name of the Prefet
of the Seine. Each gate of the city has its peculiar class of produce to
tax, according to the locality to which it gives entrance; and the daily
receipts vary to an astonishing degree. At the Orleans depot, the duties
on merchandise have reached a hundred thousand francs a day and fallen
to five hundred; the Porte de Saint-Denis ranges from fifty thousand
francs to four!

To the establishment of the _octroi municipal et de bienfaisance_ by the
Directory is due that of the great depots or _entrepots_ of wine and
alcohol on the quais of the Seine,--the importers finding it very
inconvenient to pay the duties upon all their casks on their first
arrival. They are,