LETTER

1. One of the arbitrary marks or characters constituting the alphabet and used in written language as the representatives of sounds or articulations of the human organs of speech. Several of the letters of the English alphabet have a special significance in Jurisprudence, as abbreviations and otherwise, or are employed as numerals. 2. A dispatch or epistle; a written or printed message; a communication in writing from one person to another at a distance. U. S. v. Huggett (C. C.) 40 Fed. 640; U. S. v. Denlcke (C. C.) 35 Fed. 400. 3. In the imperial law of Rome, “letter” or “epistle” was the name of the answer returned by the emperor to a question of law submitted to him by the magistrates. 4. A commission, patent, or written instrument containing or attesting the grant of some power, authority, or right. The word appears in this generic sense in many compound phrases known to commercial law and jurisprudence; e.g. letter of attorney, letter missive, letter of credit letters patent The plural is frequently used. 5. Metaphorically, the verbal expression; the strict literal meaning. The letter of a statute, as distinguished from its spirit, means the strict and exact force of the language employed, as distinguished from the general purpose and policy of the law. 6. He who, being the owner of a thing, lets It out to another for hire or compensation. Story, Bailm. 8 369. Letter-book. A book in which a merchant or trader keeps copies of letters sent by him to his correspondents. Letter-carrier. An employee of the post office, whose duty it is to carry letters from the post office to the persons to whom they are addressed. Letter missive. In English law. A letter from the king or queen to a dean and chapter, containing the name of the person whom he would have them elect as bishop. 1 Steph. Comm. 666. A request addressed to a peer, peeress, or lord of parliament against whom a bill has been filed desiring the defendant to appear and answer to the bill. In civil law practice. The phrase “letters missive.” or “letters dimissory, is sometimes used to denote the papers sent up on an appeal by the judge or court below to the superior tribunal, otherwise called the “apostles,” (q. v.) Letter of advocation. In Scotch law. The process or warrant by which, on appeal to the supreme court or court of session, that tribunal assumes to itself jurisdiction of the cause, and discharges the lower court from all further proceedings in the action. Ersk. Inst. 732. Letter of credence. In international law. The document which accredits an ambassador, minister, or envoy to the court or government to which he is sent; i.e., certifies to his appointment and qualification, and bespeaks credit for his official actions and representations. Letter of exchange. A bill of exchange, (q. v.) Letter of license. A letter or written instrument given by creditors to their debtor, who has failed in trade, etc., allowing him longer time for the payment of his debts, and protecting him from arrest in the mean time. Tomlins; Holtbouse. Letter of marque. A commission given to a private ship by a government to make reprisals on the ships of another state; hence, also, the ship thus commissioned. TJ. S; v. The Ambrose Light (D. C.) 25 FNL 40S; Gibbons v. Livingston, 6 N. J. Law, 255. Letter of recall. A document addressed by the executive of one nation to that of another, informing the latter that a minister sent by the former has been recalled. Letter of recredentials. A document embodying the formal action of a government upon a letter of recall of a foreign minister. It, in effect, accredits him back to his own government. It is addressed to the latter government, and is delivered to the minister by the diplomatic secretary of the state from which he is recalled. Letters oloso. In English law. Close letters are grants of the king, and, being of private concern, they are thus distinguished from letters patent. Letters of absolution. Absolvatory letters, used In former times, when an abbot released any of his brethren ab omnia subjections et oberfiestia, etc., and made them capable of entering into some other order of religion. Jacob. Letters of correspondence. In Scotch law. Letters are admissible in evidence against the panel, i.e. the prisoner at the bar, in criminal trials. A letter written by the panel is evidence against him; not so one from a third party found in his possession. Bell. Letters of fire and sword. See FIRE AND SWORD. Letters of request. A formal instrument by which an inferior judge of ecclesiastical jurisdiction requests the judge of a superior court to take and determine any matter which has come before him. thereby waiving or remitting his own jurisdiction. This is a mode of beginning a suit originally in the court of arches, instead of the consistory court. Letters of safe condnct. No subject of a nation at war with England can, by the law of nations, come into the realm, nor can travel himself upon the high seas, or send his goods and merchandise from one place to another, without danger of being seized, unless he has letters of safe conduct, which, by divers old statutes, must be granted under the great seal, and enrolled a in chancery, or else are of no effect; the sovereign being the best judge of such emergencies as may deserve exemption from the general law of arms. But passports or licenses from the ambassadors abroad are now more usually obtained, and are allowed to be of equal validity. Wharton. Letters of slains. or slants. Letters subscribed by the relatives of a person who had been slain, declaring that they had received an assythment, and concurring in an application to the crown for a pardon to the offender. These or other evidences of their concurrence were necessary, to found the application. Bell. Letters rogatory. A formal communication in writing, sent by a court in which an action is pending to a court or judge of a foreign country, requesting that the testimony of a witness resident within the jurisdiction of the latter court may be there formally taken under its direction and transmitted to the first court for use in the pending action. This process was also in use, at an early period, between the several states of the Union. The request rests entirely upon the comity of courts towards each other. See Fnion Square Bank v. Reichmann, 9 App. Div. 596, 41 X. Y. Supp. 602. Letters testamentary. The formal instrument of authority and appointment given to an executor by the proper court, empowering him to enter upon the discharge of his office as executor. It corresponds to letters of administration granted to an administrator.