SIGN. In Contracts. A token of any thing ; a note or token given without words.
2. Contracts are express or implied. The ex press nro manifested viva voce or by writing; the implied are shown by silence, by acts, or by signs.
Among all nations and at all times, certain sigas have been considered as proof of assent or dissent : for example, tbe nodding of the head, and the shaking of hands, 2 Blackstone, Comm. 448; 6 Toullier, n. 33 ; Heineocius, Antiq. lib. 2, t. 23, n. 19, silence and inaction, facts and signs, are some times very strong evidence of cool reflection, when following a question. I ask you to lend me one hundred dollars : without saying a word, you put your band in your pocket and deliver me the money. I go into a hotel, and I ask the landlord if he enn accommodate me and take care of my truck : with out speaking, he takes it out of my hands and sends it into his chamber. By this act be doubtless be comes responsible to me as a bailee. At tbe expi ration of a lease, the tenant remains in possession, —without any objection from the landlord : this may. be fairly interpreted as a sigo of a consent that the lease shall be renewed. 13 Sorg. & R. NOD. 60.
3. The learned author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ia his 44th chapter, remarks, "Among savage natioas the want ef letters is im perfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken atteation and perpetuate the remembrance of any public or private transaction. The juris prudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a paatomime; the words were adapted tu the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceediag was sufficient to annul the substance of the fairest claim. The communion ol tbe marriage.life was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and water ; and tbe divorced wife resigned the bunch of keys by the delivery of' which she had been invested with the government of the family. Tbe manumission of a son or a slave was performed by turning him round with e geotle blow en the eheek ; a work was prohibited by the casting of a stone; prescription'wes inter rupted by the breaking of a branch ; the clenched fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposit; the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence.
The iadenture of covenants was a broken straw; weiihts and scales were introduced into every pay ment ; and the heir who accepted a testament was sometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affected transport. If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neighbor's house, he concealed his nakedness with a linen towel, and hid his face with a mask or basin, lest he should encounter the eyes of a virgin or a, matron. In a civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of his witness, seized his reluctant adversary by the neck, and implored, iu solemn lamentation, the aid of bis fellow-eitizens. The two competitors grasped each othees hand, as if they stood prepared for combat before the tri bunal of the prretor : he commanded them to pro duce the object of the dispute; they went, they re turned with measured steps, and a elod of earth was east at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science ef the words and actions of law was the inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians. Like the Chaldean astrolo gers, they announced to their olients tbe days of business and repose ; those important trifles were interwoven with the religion of Numa; and, after the publication of the Twelve Tables, the Roman people were still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial proceedings. The treachery. of some pie, beian officers at length revealed the profitable mys tery; in a more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided sad observed; end the same antiquity which sanctified the practice obliterated the use and meaning of this primitive language." In Measures. In angular measures, s sign is equal to thirty degrees.
In Mercantile Law. A board, tin, or other substance, on which are painted the name and businessof a merchantor tradesman.
Every man bas a right to adopt such a sign as he may please to select ; but he has no right to use another's name without his consent. See Dalloz, Dict. Propriete Indus trielle ; TRADE-MARKS.