(p. 200), to continue in force. By s. 54, general council to publish a list of medicines and compounds, the manner of preparing them with the true weights and measures, to be called the "British Pharmacopoeia." Nothing in the act is to affect chemists, druggists and dentists in their lawful occupation; nor duly licensed apothecaries in Ireland.

CHAPTER XIV.

Principal, Factor, Agent, and Broker.

A FACTOR is the agent of a merchant or trader, constituted by letters of attorney, and whose power and responsibility are generally limited by the commission of his principal.

If a factor buy goods on account of his principal, where he is used so to do, the contract will bind the principal to a fulfilment of the bargain. But where goods are bought or exchanged without order, it is at the merchant's option whether he will accept of them or turn them on the factor's hands.

If an agent, by the adventure of his principal's property, not authorized by the usages of trade or the terms of his employment, and without the express consent of his principal, occasion loss to the principal, he is answerable to the amount of the damages sustained; but mere negligence is not sufficient to render an agent liable; it must be gross carelessness, fraud, or a breach of positive orders.

If an agent deals or speculates with the effects of the principal, whatever advantage or profit accrues from the transaction is for the benefit of the principal. So, if an agent employed to purchase an estate buys it for himself, he is considered only a trustee for the principal, 1 Russ. & M. 53.

An agent employed to sell cannot be a purchaser; nor if employed to purchase can he be the seller, unless by the express consent of the employer.

An agent has a lien on the property of his principal, or on his securities, as well for incidental charges as the general balance due to him.

Prior to the alteration in 1825, the law was extremely hard upon third parties, in their transactions with factors or agents. First, in case of advances made to factors or agents, upon security or merchandise, in ignorance of their not being the owners of the property, the party so advancing might be deprived of his security by the principal. Secondly, in case of purchases of merchandise from factors or agents not invested with the power of sale, though that factor is unkown to the purchaser, yet the purchaser would be liable to pay a second time the value of the merchandise. To

remove these hardships, the 4 G. 4, c. 83, and the 6 G. 4. c. 94. were passed, establishing the validity of contracts made in relation to merchandise intrusted to factors or agents.

Under the 6 G. 4, all persons entrusted for consignment or sale with goods, and who shall have shipped them in their own names, and any person in whose name such goods shall be shipped by any other person, shall be deemed the OWNERS so far as to entitle the consignee of a lien thereon, in respect of any money advanced to the person in whose name the goods shall be shipped, or in respect of any money or negotiable security received by him to the use of such consignee, in like manner as if true owners thereof provided the consignee had no notice at or before the advance of the money, by the bill of lading, or otherwise, to the contrary; the person also in whose name the goods are shipped is to be deemed the owner, unless the contrary be shown.

Persons entrusted with, and in possession of, any bill of lading, India warrant, dock warrant, warehouse-keeper's certificate, wharfinger's certificate, warrant, or order for delivery of goods, shall be taken to be the owner of the goods, mentioned in such documents, so as to give validity to any contract to be entered into by such person for the sale thereof, or for the deposit or pledge thereof, as security for any advance made upon the faith of such documents; provided the persons making the advance have no previous knowledge that the person so entrusted is not the actual and real owner of such goods or merchandise.

Persons may take, in deposit or pledge, any goods or merchandise so entrusted as security for any debt or demand; but they do not thereby acquire a greater power over the deposit than the factor possessed at the time of making the deposit.

All contracts and payments made with agents so intrusted are binding on the principal, if they be made in the ordinary course of business; or out of that course, if within the agent's authority, and the parties had no notice that such agent is not authorized to sell the goods or receive the purchase money.

Nothing in the act prevents the principal from recovering his goods from his factor before they have been sold, deposited, or pledged; or from the assignee of the factor, in the event of his bankruptcy; nor from recovering the purchase-money, in the event of the sale, or from recovering the goods by repaying any sum of money or negotiable instrument advanced upon them; provided, in case of the bankruptcy of the factor, the principal shall be held to have discharged any debt due by him to the estate of the bankrupt.

By 5 & 6 V. c. 33, the law is amended relating to advances really made to agents entrusted with goods, and facilitates and gives protection to the common practice of making advances on the security of goods or documents to persons known to have possession thereof as agents only. Under this act any agent who is in pos

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session of goods, or of the documents of title to them, is to be held in law as the owner, to the effect of giving validity to any contract or agreement by way of pledge, lien, or security really made by any person with such agent. The agent may receive back cominodities or titles which have been pledged for an advance, and may replace them with others; but the lender's lien is not to extend beyond the value of the original deposit.

The documents which are held to authorise the agent in disposing of the property represented by them, and the transference of which is a sufficient security to the lender, are, any bill of lading, India warrant, dock warrant, warehouse-keeper's certificate, warrant or order for the delivery of goods, or any other document used in the ordinary course of business as proof of the possession or control over the goods. The property represented by the document is held to be conveyed as soon as the document is transferred, though the property is not in the agent's hands; and an advance of money on consignment or indorsement is valid, though the consignment or indorsement does not take place at the date of the agreement. A contract by the agent's clerk, or any person acting for him, is binding.

II. BROKERS.

These are agents who negotiate bargains and sales between merchants and others on commission, and chiefly differ from factors in not having possession of the goods bargained for. When the agreement for sale or purchase has been made, the broker gives to the seller a memorandum of the sale, to the buyer a memorandum of the purchase, and the delivery of these notes, which are called bought and sold notes, binds the bargain, and confers on the principal the same rights and liabilities as if the transaction had been carried on by himself in person. In London and Bristol brokers are licensed by their respective corporations, and are subject to penalties for acting without license, for not registering their contracts, or not revealing the names of their principals, or for dealing in commodities on their own account, or for taking any other profit than their brokerage or commission. (6 Anne, c. 16; 3 G. 2, c. 31; 57 G. 3, c. 60.) They carry about them a silver medal, as evidence of their qualification, are bound by oaths, and give bond for the faithful execution of their office.

Ship-brokers form an important class in all great mercantile ports. It is their business to procure goods on freight, or a charter for ships outward bound; to enter and clear vessels at the customhouse; to collect the freight on goods, and generally to take an active part in all business between merchants and ship-owners. Most ship-brokers are also insurance brokers, in which capacity they procure the names of the underwriters to policies of insurance,

and settle the conditions of the risk and the rate of the premium. Unlike other brokers, an insurance broker, though he has given up the name of his principal, continues personally liable to the underwriters for the amount of the premium. But he is not liable to make good to the owner of the ship or merchandise, who must look to the underwriter in the event of loss.

A ship-broker is not within the meaning of the statutes for the regulation of brokers, 4 Bing. 301; but a stock-broker who transacts business in the public funds is bound by them. Stockbrokers are paid by a commission, limited by 10 Anne, c. 19, to 2s. 6d, per cent., which they are entitled to deduct from the produce of the sale.

An Act of 1870, the 33 and 34 V. c. 60 relieves brokers from the supervision of the court of mayor and aldermen of the City of London.

CHAPTER XV.

Authors, Publishers, Printers, Engravers, Sculptors, Designers, and Newspaper Proprietors.

LITERARY property may be defined to be the product of the intellect, published to the world, under such conditions as confer on the author or his assignee the exclusive right of publication, and of all benefits accruing therefrom. The peculiarity of this species of property consists in its intangible nature, which leaves no room for applying to it the ordinary criteria of possession or occupancy, by which material property is ascertained, and a peculiar law has thus become necessary for its protection. A manuscript or a painting, while the former is not printed or the latter engraved, is viewed as material property, subject to the ordinary rules of possession. It is when copies are multiplied for publication that the specialities of literary property are constituted and brought into existence.

The general diffusion of literature and great value of popular compositions, have given to the productions of the press an importance unknown to a former period. Consequently it is important to recapitulate the laws relative to literary property, and the regulations by which author and publisher are secured in the enjoyment of the profits resulting from their labours and purchases.

With respect to the originality of a literary composition, it consists in the sentiment and language; the same conceptions, clothed in the same words, must necessarily be the same composition; and whatever method be taken of exhibiting that composition to the ear or eye of another, by recital, writing, or printing, it is always

the identical work of the author which is so conveyed; and no one has a right so to use it without his consent.

A fair and bonâ fide abridgment of any book is considered a new work; and, however it may injure the sale of the original, yet it is not deemed a piracy, or violation of the author's copyright; and, in the case of Kearsley v. Carey, Lord Ellenborough held that variance in form and manner was a variance in substance, and any material alteration, which was an improvement, would not be considered a piracy. But in all abridgments, and also history, chronology, dictionaries, and the like, it must be left to the jury to determine whether the publication complained of is a servile copy and imitation, meant to supersede another, or an original work upon the same subject.

No one but the author, or his assignee, has the right to print or publish original notes, or additions to an old work, though the chief copyright may be open, and any person has liberty to publish the original work, without the notes or improvements, Carey v. Longman, 1 E. R. 358.

A translation of a work, either from the dead languages, or of a work written in Latin by an Englishman, or of papers in any of the modern European languages, has been held to be copyright.

An author has a copyright in his manuscript before it is printed, 2 B. & A. 298, and the gift of it to another does not of itself convey the right to publish by printing or otherwise; for the court of Chancery will interfere to restrain the publication of the manuscript of a deceased person; and the letters of a deceased person are the subject of copyright in the representatives, if of a literary nature; or, if their publication involve a breach of confidence, or tend to wound private feelings, an injunction may be obtained.

Every assignment of copyright, to be valid, must be in writing, and be attested by two credible witnesses; no assignment by parol is sufficient, not even of a song, Power v. Moore, 3 M. & S. 7.

If an author print and publish abroad, and do not use due dili gence to be the first printer or publisher here also, any third person, procuring the work from abroad, may lawfully print and publish it here, 2 Bar. & Cress. 871. An alien author may acquire a British copyright by first publishing his work in England; this was decided by Chief Justice Campbell, sitting in appeal in the court of Exchequer Chamber, May 20, 1851, in Boosey v. Jeffrey; thereby reversing the previous copyright law of the superior courts in Boosey v. Purday.

It has been decided in Jeffrey v. Boosey (House of Lords, Aug. 1854), that a foreigner may have copyright in a work composed and published in England; or if first published in England by a foreigner resident here at the time of publication, though he has only been resident here for a week or a day.