An agent
cannot be appointed
to
receive a loan.
A debt contracted
to an
agent cannot
be exaCted by
bis conßituenti
but i f payment
bemade
to the confti-
tuent, it is
valid :
compofitiolis after denial, are all of the fecond clafs.— With regard to
compofition after acknowledgment, it is of the fi'rft clafs, as partaking of
the nature of fale.— An agent for the delivery o f a gift, or of charity,
or for the reftitution of a depofit, as being a mere announcer, is the
fame as a meffenger. T h e cafe is alfo the fame with regard to an agent
for the execution of loans or pledges; becaufe the effect of thefe
(namely, the right of property) is eftablifhed by means of the feizin
of the thing given or bellowed in charity, and fa on ;— and as the
thing, in thefe cafes, belonged to the conflituent and fhifts to the donee
or the other in confequence of the feizin, the agent, being as it were
a mere Jiranger to the thing, cannot be confidered as a principal, but
mud be regarded merely as an explainer or a meffenger.— It is other-
wife in fale, becaufe the effect of fale is eflablifhed by fpeech, and the
agent is the fpeaker.— In the fame manner, alfo, as an agent in the
above cafes of executing gifts, &c. is a mere meffenger, fo is an
agent appointed by the petitioner, (or perfon to whom the gift, the
charity, &c. is given.) T h e cafe is the fame with refpedl to an
agent for a contraft of co-partnerfhip or Mozaribat. With refpedt to
an agent for the receipt of a loan, the appointment is null; infomuch
that, if a perfon, in virtue of fuch appointment, fhould receive a loan,
and take poffeffion of it, he, and not the conflituent, would be the
proprietor of it. It is otherwife with refpedl to a meffenger; for the
receipt of a loan by a meffenger is lawful.
If a conflituent, in the cafe of having fold goods through his
agent, fhould demand payment of the price from the purchafer, the
purchafer may lawfully refufe to comply; becaufe, with refpedl to
the contract or its rights, the conflituent is as a Jiranger, fince the
rights of the contra£1 appertain to the contracting party. If, however,
the purchafer pay the price to the conflituent, it is lawful ; nor
is the agent afterwards entitled to demand it from him, fince he has
paid it to the conflituent, to whom it of right belonged:— but if the
agent perfifl in demanding it from him, then let him take it back
from
from the conflituent and pay it to the agent, and let the agent give
it to the conflituent; a mode in which there is evidently no advantage
to any.— It is to be obferved that as the right belongs to the
conflituent, the purchafer may, in cafe of the conflituent being in- paymM^de-
debted to him, deduft the debt from the price. If, however, the owing him by
conflituent and agent be both indebted to him, he is only entitled to the«*/,'/«»/;
dedua from the price the debt of the conflituent.— If, on the other
hand, the agent only be indebted to him, he is at liberty (according heptane «
to Haneefa and Mohammed.') to dedua it from the price; becaufe the him.)
agent (as they hold) may, if he pleafe, exempt the purchafer entirely
from the payment. In either cafe, however, (that is, whether
the purchafer make a deduaion on account of the debt due by the
agent, or whether the agent exempt him entirely,) the agent is re-
fponfible for the whole to his conflituent.
C H A P . II.
O f Agency for Purchafe and Sale.
S E C T. I.
O f A g e n c y fo r P u r c h a s e .
W H E N a perfon appoints another his agent for purchafing feme An »gent
indefinite thing, it is neceffary that he explain the kind and jua- periyinftru&-
lily of the thing, or the kind and price of it; in order that the agent wn'^t
VoL. II I. c may he is to purchafe,