is derogatory to the reputation of others; but, in this country, his remarks are not absolutely privileged; they must be pertinent to the subject-matter of the litigation. If they are not pertinent and are defamatory, he will be liable to an action for defamation (q.v.). Consult Weeks, Treatise on Attorneys and Counselors at Law (San Francisco, 1892).
Attorney-General. In England, the chief law officer of the crown, and, by reason of his office, the titular head of the bar. As the legal adviser of the Crown and of the various governmental departments, and as a cabinet minister, he possesses great authority and dignity. His salary is £7000 per annum, and he is not allowed to engage in private practice. The attorney-general of the United States is the chief law officer of the Federal Government and a member of the President's cabinet. His duties are prescribed by statute, and his annual salary is $8000. Each State has a similar officer, as has each Crown colony of Great Britain. Attorney-General to the Prince of Wales is the officer in whose name the Prince, as Duke of Cornwall, may sue and be sued in matters connected with that duchy.
Attorney, Letter or Power of. An instrument authorizing a person to act as the agent or attorney of the person granting it. A general power authorizes the agent to act generally for the principal. A special power limits the agency to particular things. A power of attorney may be by parole, or under seal. The attorney cannot execute a sealed instrument that will bind his principal unless his own power is given under seal. Grants of this nature are very strictly construed. Authority given to one person cannot be delegated by him to another, unless expressly set forth in the original grant. The death of the principal at once cancels a power of attorney. All conditions in the power must be strictly observed to render the attorney's action legal. Consult the works referred to under the title Agent.
Attorney, Warrant of. The written authority to an attorney at law to appear in a litigation for the maker. The production of such authority is rarely required by the courts. The term is applied also to the written authority given by a debtor to an attorney named by the creditor to confess judgment for the debt. It is often attached to and made part of a promissory note. In some States it renders the note non-negotiable: but in most jurisdictions it does not affect the negotiability of the note.
ATTORNMENT, at-tflrn'ment
(for derivation, see Attorney). The formal recognition, by a tenant, of the grantee of the freehold as his landlord. This doctrine, which has played an important rôle in the modern law of landlord and tenant, had its almost forgotten origin in the feudal system of land tenure. The intimate character of the relationship of lord and freehold tenant in this system required not only that the lord should choose his own tenant, but the correlative right of the tenant to choose his own lord. The tenant was the first to gain the right to alienate his freehold, and thus to impose upon his lord a tenant, not of the latter's choice (Statute Quia Emptores, 18 Edw. I., A.D. 1290), but the right of the tenant to refuse his assent to the convevance of the landlord's estate in the
premises, and thus to render his grant ineffectual and incomplete, not only continued 400 years longer, but was extended by analogy to the com- mon, non-feudal relations of landlord and tenant. Accordingly, it was the law of England and of the English colonies in America until the statute of 4 Anne, c. 16, A.D. 1705, that an owner of lands subject to a lease for life or years could not make an effectual grant of his reversion (q.v.), or estate as landlord, without the assent of the tenant in possession. This assent might be mani- fested by words, by agreement in writing, by the payment of rent or of a nominal sum, and was called an attornment, or turning to, submission to, the new landlord. Without such attornment the grantee of the reversion was not entitled to the rents and services of the tenancy, nor could he enforce against the tenant any covenant or condition on which the lands were held. The statute above referred to, however, dispensed with the necessity of attornment in all ordinary eases of conveyance of his estate by the landlord, making such conveyance good and effectual from its date, the tenant becoming ipso facto tenant of the grantee upon the terms of the existing lease, and such is now the law everywhere in the United States.
Under the old law it was possible for a tenant, by attorning to a stranger, virtually to dispossess, or disseize, his landlord, and thus put him to an action to recover possession of his lands. This extraordinary and wrongful effect of an attornment was also done away with by the statute of Anne (sec. 10), and the tenant estopped to deny his landlord's title (see Estoppel), unless the attornment be made with the landlord's consent, or in consequence of a judgment or decree of a court, or to a mortagee after the mortgage has been forfeited. The exceptions are still a part of the law, and, under them, the doctrine of attornment is an important part of the modern law of landlord and tenant. It should be added that, though a tenant is, in the ordinary case of an alienation of the freehold by his landlord, no longer protected by the necessity of making an attornment, he does not become liable on the obligations of his lease to the new landlord until notified of the transfer. Consult: Kent, Commentaries on American Law (Boston, 1896); Taylor, Treatise on the American Law of Landlord and Tenant (Boston, various editions). See Landlord and Tenant.
ATTRACTION (Lat. attractio, a drawing
together, from ad, to + trahere, to draw). The
phenomenon taking place when two or more
bodies belonging to the same system, but sepa-
rated from contact with one another, tend to
approach each other as the result of a condition
of stress. Attraction is seen in the case of
celestial bodies, the earth and a, falling body,
electrified bodies, and a magnet and a piece of
iron or steel. Gravitational attraction varies as
the product of the masses, and inversely as the
distance separating them, or, in other words, fol-
lows the 'Law of Inverse Squares.' Attraction
is the same in nature as repulsion, but is opposite
in direction, the former being considered to be a
negative force, in that it tends to diminish the
distance between the bodies, while the latter is
considered positive, in that it tends to make this
distance greater. It plays an important part in
the discussion of many physical phenomena, and
