F A C 
F A C 
FAC 
Fable is also used for the plot of an epic 
or dramatic poem ; and is, according to 
Aristotle, the principal part, and the soul of a 
ppem. See Poetry. 
FABRIC-LANDS, those formerly given 
towards rebuilding or repairing of cathe- 
drals and other churches ; for antiently al- 
most every body gave more or less, by his 
will, to the fabric of the parish-church where 
he dwelt. 
' FACE, or fagade, in architecture, the 
front of a building, or the side which con- 
tains the chief entrance. Sometimes, how- 
ever, it is used for whatever side presents to 
the street, garden, court, &c. or is opposite 
to the eye. 
Face of a stone, in masonry, that super- 
ficies of it which lies in the front of the work. 
The workmen generally choose to make one 
of those sides the face, which, when in the 
quarry, lay perpendicularly to the horizon, 
and consequently the breaking, not the cleav- 
ing way of the stone. 
Face, in fortification, an appellation given 
to several parts of a fortress, as the face of a 
bastion, &c. See Fortification. 
Face, in the military art, a word of com- 
mand, intimating to turn about : thus, “ Face 
to the right,” is to tu n upon the left heel a 
quarter-round to the right ; and “ Face to 
the left,” is to turn upon the right heel a 
quarter-round to the left. 
FACET, or facette, among jewellers, the 
name of the little faces or planes to be found 
in brilliant and rose diamonds. 
FACTION, in antiquity, a name given to 
the different companiesofcombatants or racers 
in the circus. They were four, viz. the white, 
the red, the green, and the blue; to which 
Domitian added another of purple colour. 
They were so denominated from the colour 
of the liveries they wore, and were dedicated 
to the four seasons of the year, the green 
being consecrated to spring, the blue to win- 
ter, the red to summer, and the white to au- 
tumn. It appears from undent inscriptions 
that each faction had its procurators and phy- 
sician ; and from history, that party rage ran 
so high among them, that in a dissension 
between two factions, in the time of Justi- 
nian, almost forty thousand men lost their 
lives in the quarrel. See Gibbon’s Decline 
and Fall, &c. 
FACTITIOUS, any thing made by art, 
in opposition to what is the produce of na- 
ture. Thus, factitious cinnabar is opposed 
to native cinnabar. 
FACTOR, in commerce, is an agent or 
correspondent residing beyond the seas, or 
in some remote part, commissioned by mer- 
chants to buy or sell goods on their account, 
or assist them in carrying on their trade. 
A factor receives from the merchants, his 
constituents, in lieu of wages, a commission 
or factorage, according to the usage of the 
place where he resides, or the business he 
transacts, this being various in different conn- I 
tries, and on the purchases and sales of dif- 
ferent commodities. He ought to keep 
strictly to the tenor of his orders ; as a devia- 
tion from them, even in the most minute par- 
ticular, exposes him to make ample satisfac- 
tion for any loss that may accrue from his 
nonobservance of them ; and it is very rea- 
sonable it should be so, as the distance of his 
situation renders him unable to judge of his ; 
principal’s views and intention. When unli- 
mited orders are given to factors, and they 
are left to sell or buy on the best conditions 
they can, whatever detriment occurs to their 
constituents, they are excused, as it is to be 
presumed they acted for the best, and were 
governed by the dictates of prudence. But 
a bare commission to sell is not sufficient au- 
thority for the factor to trust any person, 
wherefore he ought to receive the money on 
the delivery of the goods ; and, by the ge- 
neral power, he may not trust beyond one, 
two, or three months, & c. the usual time al- 
low'ed in sales, otherwise he shall be answer- 
able out of his own estate. If a factor sells 
on the usual trust to a person of good credit, 
who afterwards becomes insolvent, he is dis- 
charged ; but not if the man’s credit was bad 
at the time of sale. If a factor gives a man 
time for payment of money contracted on 
sale of his principal’s goods, and, after that 
time is elapsed, sells him goods of his own 
for ready money, and the man becomes in- 
solvent, the factor in equity ought to in- 
demnify his principal, but he is not compel- 
lable by the common law. A factor should 
always he punctual in the advices of his trans- 
actions, in sales, purchases, freights, and 
more especially in draughts by exchange : he 
should never deviate from the orders he re- 
ceives in the execution of a commission for 
purchasing goods, either in price, quality, 
or kind ; and if, after goods are bought, he 
sends them to a different place from what he 
was directed to, they must remain for his 
own account, except the merchant, on ad- 
vice of his proceedings, admits them ac- 
cording to his first intention. A factor that 
sells a commodity under the price he is or- 
dered, shall be obliged lo make good the dif- 
ference : and if lie purchases- goods for an- 
other at a price limited, and afterwards they 
rise, and he fraudulently takes them for his 
own account, and sends them to another part, 
in order to secure an advantage that seem- 
ingly offers, he will, on proof, be obliged, 
by the custom of merchants, to satisfy his 
principal for damages. If a factor, in con- 
formity with a merchant’s orders, buys with 
his money, or on his credit, a commodity he 
shall be directed to purchase ; and, without 
giving advice of the transaction, sells it again 
to profit, and appropriates to himself the ad- 
vantage ; the merchant shall recover it from 
him, and besides have him amerced for his 
fraud. When factors have obtained a profit 
for their principal, they must be cautious 
how they dispose of it; for if they act with- 
out commission they are responsible : and if 
a merchant remits goods to his factor, and 
about a month after draws a bill on him, the 
factor, having effects in his hands, accepts 
the bill, then the principal breaks, and the 
goods are seized in the factor’s hands for the 
behalf of the creditors, it has been conceived 
the factor must answer the bill notwith- 
standing, and come in as a creditor for so 
much as he was obliged, by reason of his 
acceptance, to pay. A factor who enters into 
a charterparty with a master for freight, is 
obliged by the contract ; but if he loads 
aboard generally, the principal and the lad- 
ing are liable for the freight, and not the 
factor. If a factor, having money in his 
hands belonging to his principal, neglects to 
insure a ship and goods, according to order, 
if the ship miscarry, the factor, by the cus- 
4 S 2 m 
6gi 
tom of merchants, shall make good the da- 
mage; and if he makes any composition with 
the insurers after insurance without orders so 
to do, he is answerable for the whole insurance. 
As fidelity and diligence are expected 
from the factor, so the law requires the like 
from the principal ; if, therefore, a mer- 
chant remits counterfeit jewels to his factoi 7 
who sells them as if true ; it he receives loss 
or prejudice by imprisonment or other pu- 
nishment, the principal shall not only make 
full satisfaction to the factor, but to the party 
who bought the jewels. 
What is here said of factors, is meant of 
such as reside abroad to act for merchants ; 
and may be applied to supercargoes, who go 
a voyage to dispose of a cargo, and after- 
wards return with another to their principals ; 
but it is also the custom of the merchants of 
the highest credit throughout the world to act 
mutually in the capacity of factors lor each 
other. The business so executed is called 
commission-business, and is generally desira- 
ble by all merchants, provided they have al- 
ways effects in their hands, as a security for 
all the affairs which they transact for the ac- 
count of others. And this class of traders of 
established reputation, have current as well 
as commission accounts, constantly between 
them ; and draw on, remit to, and send com- 
missions to each other only by the inter- 
course of letters, which, among men of ho- 
nour, are as obligatory and authoritative as 
all the bonds and ties of law. 
Factor, in multiplication, a name given 
to the multiplier and multiplicand, because 
they constitute the product. 
FACTORAGE, called also commission, 
is the allowance given to factors by the mer- 
chant who employs them. A factor’s com- 
mission in Britain, on most kinds of goods, 
is two and a half per cent. : on lead, 
and some other articles, two per cent. ; in 
Italy, two and a half per cent. ; in France, 
Holland, Spain, Portugal, Hamburgh, and 
Dantzic, two per cent. ; in Turkey three per 
cent.; in North America five per cent, on 
sales, and live per cent, in returns ; in the 
West Indies eight per cent, for commission 
and storage. In some places it is customary 
for the factors to insure the debts for an ad- 
ditional allowance, generally one and a half 
per cent. In that case they are accountable 
for the debt when the usual term of credit 
is expired. Factorage on goods is sometimes 
charged at a certain rate per cask, or other 
package, measure, or weight, especially when 
the factor is only employed to receive or de- 
liver them. 
FACTORY is a place where a consider- 
able number of factors reside, to negotiate 
for their masters or employers. The most 
considerable factories belonging to the Bri- 
tish are those established in the East Indies, 
Portugal, Turkey, &c. 
FACULiE, in astronomy, certain bright 
and shining parts, which the modern astro- 
nomers have, by means of telescopes, ob- 
served upon or about the surface of the sun: 
they are but very seldom seen. 
Ileveiius assures us that, on July 20, 16.34, 
he observed a facula, whose breadth was 
equal to a third part of the sun’s diameter. 
He says too that the macuke often change 
into facuke, but these seldom or never into 
maculae. And some authors even contend 
