Norfolk Gazette And Publick Ledger

TOBACCO.

The following proclamation, vesting the entire manufacture and sale of tobacco in the government of France, may serve to show the correctness of Bonaparte's conception of the nature of commerce :--

Palace of the Thuilleries, Dec. 20, 1810.

"Napoleon, emperor of the French, king of Italy, protector of the confederation of the Rhine, mediator of the Swiss confederation, etc.

"The finances have been the constant object of my thoughts, the finances of a great kingdom must furnish the means to make head against circumstances, and to provide for the extraordinary or accidental circumstances of war, without having recourse to new imposts, which always produce but little in the first year in which they are imposed.

"The nations most enlightened in these matters have thought, that the only means which could fulfil this object was to have recourse to advantageous loans; by these they lay burthen, by anticipation, on the following generation, and sacrifice to the present moment what is the dearest to men--the welfare of their children. They consign one generation to the curses of those that follow it.

"We have adopted other principles. We are aware that a great number of taxes are necessary, which in ordinary times may press little on the people, the rate not being high, and that they may be in condition, in extraordinary times, to supply all the necessaries of the treasury by merely augmenting the tariff. We have considerably diminished the real and personal taxes.

"We have established the consolidated duties, and the tax upon salt, avoiding the errors and abuses of which France had so much to complain, under the system of the farmers general and the gabelies. Tobacco, which of all other things is most suitable to taxation, has not escaped our attention. Experience has shown us the impropriety of all the measures hitherto adopted. The manufactures were not very numerous, yet it was necessary still to diminish the number. The price of the fabricated tobacco was as high as at the time of the general exclusion.--The smallest part of the produce came into the treasury; the rest was divided amongst the manufacturers. To so many abuses was added another--that the planters were entirely dependent on the manufacturers. After mature deliberation, we are of opinion that all these considerations, and the very interest of agriculture, render it necessary that the manufactory of tobacco and snuff should be carried on by a particular committee, for the benefit of the public chest; that the public revenue arising therefrom will be sufficiently secured by the said committee being obliged exclusively to manufacture the said article of the produce of the French ground; that the principles and customs of the said manufactory remaining the same, the planter will not be injured by the establishment of the said committee; and lastly, that, without increasing the burthens of our people, we shall obtain a branch of the public revenue, which is estimated at about 30,000,000 of francs, and which, while it permits us to abate an equal sum of real and personal taxes, reserves to the exchequer of our kingdom a measure which will at all times meet the circumstances and necessities of the times. Our full establishment requires an annual sum of 600,000,000 francs, and 900,000,000 are required in times of a maritime war which however, in the present critical and extraordinary circumstances, when the dearest interests of the realm, and the honor of the crown, are to be defended and asserted, may rise to 1,000,000,000. In order to obtain that sum we stand not in need of loans, sales or new taxes, the sole increase or decrease of the tariff of indrs will suffice to attain that grand object. After having heard our council of state, we have decreed. &c."

The manufacture and sale of tobacco to be vested exclusively in the committee of consolidated duties in all our departments except those beyond the Alps, and the Seven on the other side of the shield. The committee are to manufacture no tobacco but of French growth, with the exception of one fifteenth part foreign. The growth, valuation, price and delivery of tobacco, are subjected to regulations; no individual is to have in his possession tobacco not manufactured at the imperial manufactory, nor is any manufactured tobacco to be imported into France; not even that of Holland. A fine of 1000 francs; confiscation and punishment, agreeably to the law of the year II are the consequences of fraud and smuggling.