Agent

contracts. One who undertakes to manage some affair to be transacted for another on account of the latter, who is called the principal, and to render an account of it. There are various descriptions of agents, to whom different appellations are given according to the nature of their employments; as brokers, factors, supercargoes, attorneys and the like; they are all included in this general term. The authority is created either by deed, by simple writing, by parol, or by mere employment, according to the capacity of the parties, or the nature of the act to be done. It is said to be general or special with reference to its object, 1. e. according as it is confined to a single act, or is extended to all acts connected with a particular employment. With reference to the manner of its execution, it is either limited or unlimited, i. e. the agent 1s bound by precise instructions (q. v.), or feft to pursue his own discretion. It is the duty of an agent, 1, To perform what he hae undertaken in relation to his agency. 2, Touse all necessary care.

3, To render an account. Pothier, Tr. du Contrat de Mandat, passim; Paley, Agency, 1 and2; 1 Liverm.

Agency, 2; 1 Suppl. to Ves. Jr. 67, 97, 409; 2 Id. 153, 165, 240; 4 Bac. et seq.; and the articles Agency, Authority, and Principal.