There is one precaution I would recommend all travellers to adopt, and that is always to keep their passports, about them; in case they happen to pass any exhibition or building that is open to a stranger on producing his passport, it is well to be provided with it, or if he should meet with any accident, or that any casuality should occur, it will always be found useful.  When you arrive at the port where you disembark in coming from England, your passport is taken from you and sent on to Paris, and what is called a Carte de Surete is given you instead, for which you pay 2 francs; this you must give to the mistress of the hotel where you lodge at Paris, and she will procure your original passport for you from the police, or if you choose you may go for it yourself, and save the charge of the commissioner who would be employed to fetch it.  In returning to England, you take it to the English Ambassador’s to be signed, and from thence to the police for the same purpose, but only state that you are going to the port from whence you are to embark, as if you say that you are going to England they send you to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for his signature, where there is a charge of ten francs, which there is not the slightest necessity of incurring.  I have been very often from Paris to London and never paid by following the plan I have stated, but for a permit to embark there is always 30 sous to pay, at the port on quitting the country.

In all the diligences throughout France the places are numbered, and he who comes first has the first choice, in which case most persons choose No. 1, but others who prefer sitting with their backs to the horses select No. 3; this excellent regulation prevents any kind of dispute about seats.  If you have much luggage you are required to send it an hour or so before the coach starts, and in travelling by the Malle-Poste (or Mail) if your trunk be very large, and weighty, they will not take it, therefore you must ascertain that point when you take your place; it is always sent by a diligence which follows, but a delay is occasioned which sometimes proves inconvenient.  The mails are dearer than the diligence, and some go eleven miles an hour.

With regard to posting, the price is 2 francs each horse for a miriametre or six miles and a quarter, and as many horses as there are persons in the carriage must be paid for; 15 sous is what should be given to the postillion, but most people give a franc.  The posting is entirely in the hands of government, and where the horses are kept is not always an inn; but wherever it may be, printed regulations are kept to which the traveller may demand a reference, if he imagine its rules are not fulfilled.  For 4 francs a book may be purchased which gives a most detailed account of every thing connected with posting; all the charges must be paid in advance.  Coaches may be hired in Paris at from 20 to 30 francs a day, with which you may go into the country, but must be