There are quite a host of steam-boat establishments, having their agents and offices in Paris, but that for which the agency has been confided to M. Chauteauneuf, No. 8, Boulevart Montmartre, embraces so wide a field that I consider in recommending my readers to him, I afford them the opportunity of obtaining all the information they can require upon the subject; the Company could not have selected any one more capable of fulfilling the duties of such an office, as besides his extreme civility and attention to all applicants, he speaks many different languages, as French, English, Spanish, Italian, etc.  The boats for which he is agent proceed from Dunkirk to St. Petersburg, touching direct at Copenhagen, and privileged by the Emperor of Russia; the passage is effected in 6 or 7 days.  Dunkirk to Hamburg in 36 or 40 hours, corresponding with all the steamers on the Baltic and the Elbe.  Dunkirk to Rotterdam in 10 or 12 hours, communicating with all the navigation upon the Rhine.  Boulogne to London by the Commercial Steam Company.  Antwerp to New York, touching at Southampton; Marseilles to Nice, Genoa, Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Naples, Sicily, Malta and the Levant, by the steamers of the Neapolitan Company.  The above vessels are fitted up in the most efficient and solid manner, with English machinery.  At Lyons there is a corresponding office for the navigation of the interior, held by Messrs. Jackson, Dufour, and Comp., No. 7, Quai St. Clair.  M. Chateauneuf is very obliging in explaining all the details of the different tarifs of the custom duties of the various countries with which the steamers communicate.

A very great convenience exists in Paris, which I think much wanted in London, and that is what are termed Cabinets de Lecture, where you may read all the principal papers and periodical pamphlets for the small expense of 3 sous; some are higher, where English newspapers are taken, when the price is five sous; they are mostly circulating libraries at the same time.  But those who wish to see all or the greater part of the London and some provincial and foreign papers, will find them at Galignani’s, and at an English reading room established in the Rue Neuve St. Augustin, No. 55, near the Rue de la Paix; at both these establishments the admittance is ten sous.  The only English newspaper at present published in Paris is by Galignani, which contains extracts judiciously selected from the French and English papers, besides other useful information.

The investment of capital in land in France will rarely produce more than 31/2 per cent and very frequently less; in the purchase of houses in Paris 5 or 51/2, sometimes 6, is obtained; in the funds about 41/2.  Numbers of persons in France place their money on hypotheque, or mortgage, by which they make 5 per cent; the affair is arranged by means of a notaire, but often the most lucrative manner of placing money is what is called en commandite, that is, they