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are incapable of appointing an agent. Nevertheless an infant may authorise another to do any act for his own benefit, and a married woman may delegate to another powers with respect to her private property (a).

not be trans

The authority of the agent is personal to himself. A person Authority canauthorised to do an act for another requiring the exercise of ferred, discretion and judgment must execute it himself, and cannot transfer the authority to another. The trust and confidence are reposed on him, and he cannot assign them to a stranger unknown to the principal. To enable an agent to delegate his unless author authority to another a special power must be given him, except where such power is indispensable for the right performance of the act, or where it is implied by the usage of trade (b).

When a husband permits his wife to act for him in any department of business, her admissions or acknowledgments are evidence to charge the husband.

ised by usage.

FOREIGN LAWS.

be refused.

France.-Agency is a contract by which a person gives power Agency may to another to do something for himself. The contract is completed by the acceptance of the authority. The party to whom such agency is offered may refuse it, but in that case he should notify his refusal as soon as possible. If he keep silence, it will be understood that he has accepted it. But even in case of refusal he must have some regard to the interest of his principal. Thus, when goods are sent for sale, if the party refuses to receive them he cannot leave such goods uncared for; but, whilst making due protest, he must take care of them till they are taken from his hands. The agent who has undertaken to execute an order cannot renounce it unless the principal himself fails to fulfil his obligation in not sending the necessary funds or becomes bankrupt. The authority may be by deed, by letter, and also by parol. The acceptance may be proved by silence or implied by the agent fulfilling his instructions. The authority may be general or special (c).

(a) Keane v. Boycott, 2 H. Bl. 515. (b) Solly v. Rathbone, 2 M. & S. 298. In Cahill v. Dawson, 26 L. J. C. P. 253, doubts were expressed as to whether an agent instructed by another

agent to procure an insurance could
employ a broker to effect it. Hender-
son v. Bramwell, 1 Y. & J. 387; Catlin
v. Bell, 4 Camp. 183.

(c) French Civil Code, §§ 1984 to 1990.

Once under

taken cannot

be renounced.

Contract of

agency express

or implied.

When the authority is implied.

Ratification express or tacit.

United States.-Agency is founded upon a contract either express or implied, by which one of the parties confides to the other the management of some business to be transacted in his name or on his account, and by which the other assumes to do the business and to render an account of it. The authority of the agent may be created by deed or writing, or verbally without writing. The agency may be inferred from the relation of the parties, and the nature of the employment, without proof of any express appointment. It is sufficient that there be satisfactory evidence of the fact that the principal employed the agent, and the agent undertook the trust. The extent of the authority of an agent will sometimes be extended or varied on the ground of implied authority, according to the pressure of circumstances connected with the business with which he is entrusted. If an agent is to convey real estate or any interest in land, the appointment must be in writing. The agency must be antecedently given or be subsequently adopted, and in the latter case there must be some act of recognition, but an acquiescence in the assumed agency of another when the acts of the agent are brought to the knowledge of his principal is equivalent to an express authority. By permitting another to hold himself out to the world as his agent, the principal adopts his acts, and will be held bound to the person who gives credit thereafter to the other in the capacity of his agent. So when a broker had usually signed policies of insurance for another person, or an agent was in the habit of drawing bills for another, the authority was implied from the fact that the principal had assumed and ratified his acts, and he was bound by a repetition of such acts where there was no proof of any revocation of the power or of collusion between a third party and the agent. Even silence, under certain circumstances, is equivalent to an approval. When the principal is informed of what has been done, he must dissent, and give notice of it in a reasonable time, and if he does not, his assent and ratification will be presumed (a).

Holland.-The Dutch Code prescribes the same laws as the French (b).

Prussia. An agency may be given verbally, unless in special cases the law prescribes that it must be by deed. Public agents (a) Kent's Commentaries, vol. ii., p. 797.

(b) Dutch Code, §§ 1829 to 1836.

must notify without delay if they refuse to accept the agency.

fused.

An agency for unlawful purposes or in opposition to one's own What agency interest and agencies for conflicting interests should be refused. must be reEvery person who can bind himself may accept an agency. The agent should execute the authority himself, and he would be responsible for any one whom he may substitute without the consent of his principal (a).

SECTION II.

KINDS OF AGENTS.

BRITISH LAW.

The following kinds of agents are recognised by custom and law, and each kind possesses incidental authorities and rights with reference to the peculiar occupation :

A broker is one that contrives and concludes bargains and Brokers. contracts for fee and reward (b). Under the general denomination of brokers are included those especially who make contracts between merchants and traders, but there are other kinds of brokers, who take their names from the special business in which they are engaged. No one can practise as broker in the City of London unless admitted by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen (c).

(a) Prussian Civil Code, §§ 5 to 37. (b) Milford v. Hughes, 16 M. & W. 177; Jansen v. Green, 4 Burr. 2103.

(e) 6 Anne, c. 16, s. 4. Brokers acting within the City of London must obtain a licence from the mayor and aldermen of the City, and every person acting without such licence forfeits 251. for every of fence. The regulations imposed for the admission of brokers within the City of London are as follows:-Every person applying to be admitted into the office and employment of a broker must produce and show to the satisfaction of the Court a certificate of his having competent skill and knowledge in the particular trade or business wherein he seeks to be admitted and act as broker, which certificate shall also recite the nature of his former servitude, or otherwise the line of business, &c., he has been brought up in and has lately used;

such certificate to be signed by respect-
able merchants and others, not fewer
than six in number at the least, using
and carrying on trade or manufacture.
No person is licensed to exercise the
employment of a broker who drives any
other trade, and all persons who have
been admitted as brokers and who do
use and exercise any trade or calling or
otherwise will be discharged from the
office or employment of a broker. No
broker is to make out or take any bill
of parcels in his own name, or receive
or take any bill of parcels or invoice on
account of his principal made out in
his, the broker's, name; nor can de-
mand, receive, or take any larger sum
of money than the amount of his usual
brokage or commission. In the event of
any broker becoming bankrupt, making
composition with his creditors, or
taking the benefit of any insolvent Act,

Stock brokers.

A stock broker is one who, for brokerage and hire, concludes bargains for stock, and buys and sells in the public funds or in the funds of joint-stock companies. He is a broker within the statute, and must be admitted by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, and is liable to pay forty shillings per annum for the benefit of the Corporation of the City of London (a).

his licence to act as a broker ceases and determines, and he is not afterwards permitted to exercise the office and employ of a broker unless he be readmitted upon the application to the Court. Every broker must enter every bargain or contract he makes in a book, to be kept in his office, entitled, "The Broker's Book," on the day of making such bargain or contract, with the christian and surname at full length of both the buyer and seller, the quantity, and quality of the articles sold or bought, and the price of the same, and the term of credit agreed upon, and deliver a contract note to both buyer and seller, or either of them, upon being requested so to do within twentyfour hours after such request respectively, containing therein a true copy of such entry. No broker is to take or receive double brokerage, that is to say from both buyer and seller of the same article, but from the buyer or seller only, whichever it may happen to be that shall employ him; and no broker can be employed for both buyer and seller in the same transaction, except only in regard to purchases made by brokers at public sales, and then always in such cases that the said purchases be made bona fide, and that the name of the principal be entered in the broker's book immediately after the conclusion of the day's sale, or the space of twenty-four hours next after every such transaction.

Every broker must keep by him an authentic copy of his admission, and must produce the same and also the silver medal delivered to him at the time of his admission, for his authority and the satisfaction of all persons concerned to know the same upon

being required to do so by any such person.

(a) Clarke v. Powell, 4 B. & Ad. 846; Rex v. London Court of Request Commissioners, 7 East, 292.

The following regulations for the admissions and re-elections of stock brokers are made by the committee of the Stock Exchange :--

The committee for general purposes shall admit and re-elect such persons as they shall deem eligible to be members of the Stock Exchange, for one year, to be computed from the 25th of March then instant, or last preceding the admission of such subscriber, at the amount fixed by the trustees and managers for such admission.

Every new applicant for admission must be recommended by three persons who have been members of the Stock Exchange not less than two years immediately preceding, and who have fulfilled all their engagements therein. Each recommender much enter into an engagement to pay three hundred pounds to the creditors of the applicant, in case the latter shall be publicly declared a defaulter within two years from the date of his admission. In all cases where either of the parties is indemnified, the liability of all the recommenders shall continue for three years; but no applicant shall be eligible, unless one at least of his securities be not indemnified.

EXCEPTIONS. If the applicant be a foreigner he shall not be admissible, unless he shall have been a constant resident in this country during the five years immediately preceding his application for admission. If the applicant has been a clerk in the Stock Exchange for four years previously to his applica

A ship broker is one who undertakes to procure on commis- Ship brokers. sion freight and passengers for vessels, and who is employed in

tion he shall be required to provide two recommenders only, who must each enter into a similar engagement for two hundred and fifty pounds.

A notice of each application, with the names of the recommenders, stating whether they are. or expect to be, indemnified for the engagements they enter into, shall be affixed in the Stock Exchange at least eight days before the applicant can be balloted for.

Members who recommend applicants for admission are expected to have such personal knowledge of their past and present circumstances as may enable them to give a satisfactory account of the same to the committee.

Any recommender of a new member who at the time of such member's admission shall have avowed that he was not indemnified, nor expected to be so, and who shall subsequently receive any indemnity, shall, in the event of the new member failing within the time of his liability, be compelled to pay to the creditors any sum so received, in addition to the amount for which he had originally become security.

The recommendation of a firm, or of one member only of a firm, shall be allowed; but two members, one of whom is authorised clerk to the other, cannot recommend the same applicant, nor can a member be allowed to recommend any person who is to become, or to continue, his authorised clerk.

If a member shall enter into partnership with, or become authorised clerk to, either of his sureties, a new surety shall be found for such portion of the time as shall remain unexpired; as, likewise, should either of his sureties cease to be a member during his liability; and until this substitution is provided the committee have the power of prohibiting his entrance to the Stock Exchange.

No applicant is admissible if he be a bill or discount broker, or engaged in any business not connected with the

Stock Exchange, or if his wife be en- Rules of the gaged in business, or if he be a member Stock of, or subscriber to, any other institu- Exchange. tion where dealings in stocks or shares are carried on; and if subsequently to his admission he shall render himself subject to either of those objections he shall thereby cease to be a member. But the privileges granted to certain members of the foreign house on their admission to the Stock Exchange, in 1835, by which the strict enforcement of this rule was waived, shall be allowed to extend to their immediate descendants, provided such descendants were members of or had applied for admission to the Stock Exchange previously to March, 1857.

No applicant shall be eligible for admission if he be a clerk in any public or private establishment unconnected with the Stock Exchange.

A member intending to object to the admission of an applicant, or to the reelection of a member, is required to communicate the grounds of his objection, by letter, to the committee previously to the ballot.

If any applicant for admission, or re-election, shall on ballot be rejected, such rejection shall be conclusive for the year ending the 25th of March then next ensuing.

*No applicant for admission who has been a bankrupt, or has passed through the Insolvent Court, or has compounded with his creditors, shall be eligible, unless he shall have paid 6s. 8d. in the pound on his estate; nor then until two years after he shall have obtained his certificate, or fulfilled the conditions of his deed of composition, unless he shall have paid his debts in full; and no applicant having been more than once a bankrupt, or having passed more than once through the Insolvent Court, or having more than once compounded with his creditors,

This rule does not apply to the readmission of Members of the Stock Exchange.

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