Agent

[from Lat. agens, acting, one who acts, from agere, to act or do: Lat. procurator, vicarius.] One who acts for another; one who is employed by another to do any act for his benefit, or on his account.

Story on Agency, § 3.

A person who acts in the name and place of another, (who is called his principal,) by his authority or appointment, as his substitute, deputy, proxy, attorney, factor, &c. Agent is a nomen generalissimum, and includes factors and brokers, who are only a special class of agents.

2 Kent's Com. 622, note.

See Paley on Agency. United States Digest, Principal and Agent.