The rule has already been stated, that the agent must answer for his wrongful acts, but while the policy of the law makes the agent liable for his torts, even when committed while performing the duties of his agency, yet the law does not lose sight of the fiction that the principal and agent are one person, and that whatever is done through an agent is likewise the act of the principal. This principle conserves the interests, and rights of the public, and is of special saving grace where the principal is the only responsible party financially. The rule then, is, that the principal also must answer for the torts of his agent done while acting within the scope of his duties, or employment. The most frequent tort of the agent perhaps, for which the principal is liable, is the negligent act of the agent. The principal must, as is well known, respond in damages for the injury to the third person. Thus is the principal of respondeat superior.6

4 Kerns vs. Piper, 4 Watts, 222; Story on Agency, Sec. 443.

5 Rawson vs. Curtias, 19 I11., 456.

The principal is also liable for the fraud of the agent, perpetrated on a third person, when the agent was conducting a matter of business intrusted to him, whether the fraud was authorized or not, by the principal.