Letter of Marque (Fr. lettre de marque, 'a commission to plunder'; cf. Littré, iii. 456), the commission authorising a privateer to make war upon, or seize the property of, another nation. Letters of marque were abolished among European nations at the treaty of Paris in 1856. See PRIVATEER.
Letter of Marque
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 6: Humber to Malta, p. 591
Source scan(s): p. 0606