745 



AUCTIONEER. 



AUGER. 



740 



ditions usually contain a provision that " any error or mis-statement 

 shall not vitiate the sale, but that an allowance shall be made for it in 

 the purchase-money." But this clause is held only to guard against 

 unintentional errors, and not to compel a purchaser to complete the 

 contract if he has been designedly -misled. 



The duties formerly levied upon goods and property sold by public 

 auction, were repealed by the stat. 8 & 9 Viet. c. 15. 



AUCTIONEER, a person whose profession or business it is to 

 conduct sales by auction. It is his duty, previously to the commence- 

 ment of every sale, to state the conditions under which the property is 

 offered ; to receive and to notify the respective biddings, and to 

 declare the termination of the sale : for this purpose he commonly 

 makes use of a hammer, upon the falling of which the biddings are 

 closed. 



The law holds that an auctioneer is authorised by the highest bidder 

 or purchaser to sign for him the contract of sale ; and that his writing 

 down in his book the name of such purchaser, shall be sufficient to 

 bind the latter to the purchase, provided no objection be mode by 

 him previous to such entry. The law also recognises the right of an 

 auctioneer to act as the agent of persons wishing to purchase, who may 

 intrust him to make biddings for them. The auctioneer thus being 

 the agent of both parties, his signature of the buyer's name in the 

 catalogue to which the conditions of sale are annexed, opposite to the 

 lot purchased, together with the price paid, has been considered a 

 sufficient note or memorandum in writing of the bargain within the 

 Statute of Frauds ; but where the conditions of sale are not annexed 

 to the catalogue, nor expressly referred to by it, the signature of the 

 buyer's name in the catalogue is not a compliance with the statute. 



If an auctioneer declines or omits at the time of sale to disclose the 

 name of his employer, he makes himself responsible toward the buyers 

 for all matters in regard to which the responsibility would otherwise 

 lie with the owner of the property sold. He is also responsible to his 

 employer for any loss or damage that may be sustained through his 

 carelessness or want of attention to the instructions given ; and if by 

 his gross negligence the sale becomes nugatory, he can recover no 

 remuneration for his services from his employer. If he receives money 

 as a deposit on the sale of an estate, and knowing that there is a defect 

 in the title, pays that deposit over to his employer, he is answer- 

 able for the amount to the purchaser ; and if he pay over the 

 produce of a sale to his employer, after receiving notice that the 

 goods of right belong to another, the real owner may recover the value 

 from the auctioneer. 



Every person acting as 'an auctioneer in the United Kingdom is 

 required to take out a license, which must be renewed on the 5th of 

 July in every year, and for this licence the charge of ten pounds is 

 annually made. No licence, however, is required for the sale of goods 

 ninler a distress for rent or tithes to a less amount than 201., or for the 

 gale of goods by bailiffs under process of the county courts, or on sales 

 by order of the Court of Chancery. 



AUDIANS, or AUDEANS, a sect of heretics, so called from their 

 founder Audius, or Audseus, who is said to have been a native of 

 Mesopotamia, and who lived in the 4th century. Having begun, as 

 usual with religious reformers, by attacking the manners of the clergy, 

 and perhaps also the government of the church, he proceeded in this 

 line till, persecuted by the orthodox, he separated from the church, 

 with many followers, among whom were some bishops, by whom he 

 WB, on their own authority, ordained to the episcopal office himself. 

 The sect appears to have arisen in Ccele-Syria. In his old age, on 

 the accusation of some of the bishops that he induced the people to 

 withdraw from the church, Audius was banished by the emperor to 

 Scythm, about A.D. 338, where he occupied himself in introducing 

 Christianity on his own principles, and is supposed to have died there 

 some time previous to A.D. 372. Among various erroneous opinions 

 and practices attributed to Audius and his followers are the celebration 

 of Easter after the usage of the Jews, the admission of all descriptions 

 of persons indiscriminately to the Lord's Supper, the doctrine of the 

 eternity of fire, water, and darkness, and especially that of anthropo- 

 morphism, or the resemblance of the Deity to the human form, resting 

 his belief on the expressions that God made man " in his own image," and 

 those where the eyes, ears, ftc., of God are mentioned. This last heresy in 

 particular, which,as a Christian article of faith, appears to have originated 

 with Audius, spread extensively. " The pilgrim Cassian," Gibbon writes, 

 " who visited Egypt in the beginning of the 5th century, observes and 

 laments the reign of anthromorphism among the monks, who were 

 not conscious that they embraced the system of Epicurus." (' Dec. and 

 F. of Rom. Emp.,' chap. 47, note.) But we have no account of the 

 tenete of Audius, either from himself or any of his followers : we are 

 ili-)'iiilnt for all we know of him upon the statements of the orthodox 

 theological writers of that and the next age, Athanasius, Augustine, 

 Epiphaniua, and Theodoret. He is admitted to have been a person of 

 learning, and Epiphanius acknowledges that in his exile he exerted 

 himself with great success in converting the barbarians, and says that 

 he was chargeable with " defection and schism, but not with heresy," 

 and that the Audians were remarkably strict in their morals. 



AUDITOR, an officer or agent of the king, or of a private individual 

 or corporation, who examines periodically the accounts of under-officers, 

 tenants, stewards, or bailiffs, and reports the state of their accounts to 

 hi* principal. 



A uditors of the Imprest. Ancient officers of the Exchequer, abolished 

 in 1785. 



Auditors of Public Accounts, or, more strictly, 'Commissioners for 

 auditing the Public Accounts,' are public officers, originally established 

 by the 25 Geo. III. c. 52, in place of the patentees of the office of 

 auditors of the imprest (Lord Sondes and Lord Cardiff), whose patents 

 were vacated with compensation by that Act, and their functions and 

 powers transferred to the commissioners above mentioned. The Queen 

 is authorised by the stat. 46 Geo. III. c. 141, to appoint ten of these 

 commissioners, who hold their offices during good behaviour, with 

 salaries of 15001. per annum to the chairman, and 1200?. per annum to 

 the other commissioners. They are incapacitated from sitting in 

 Parliament, and are sworn to execute the duties of their office faith- 

 fully and impartially. There is a provision in the statute, that no 

 vacancy which may arise by death or otherwise in the number of com- 

 missioners after the first appointment shall be filled up without the 

 express authority of Parliament, until the number is reduced to five, 

 in which case the Queen may, from time to time, appoint new commis- 

 sioners, so as to keep their numbers always to six. Two of the number 

 are, by the 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 121, s. 17, empowered to examine parties 

 on oath, and do all acts concerning the audit of public accounts. 



By the 46 Geo. III. c. 141, s. 8, all public accountants are to trans- 

 mit to the commissioners within three months after 31st December, or 

 within three months of such day as the lords of the treasury shall 

 order (see 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 104), accounts duly attested, in manner 

 pointed out by the Act, of all sums received and paid by them for the 

 public service within the preceding year, together with proper vouchers 

 for such receipts and payments, and a schedule of the same ; which 

 schedule is to be compared with the vouchers by an officer in the 

 Audit-office. The commissioners may call on all public accountants, 

 whenever they think fit, to account to them for the receipt, expen- 

 diture, or issue of all moneys or stores intrusted to them, and on 

 failure they are to certify the defaulters' names to the remembrancer 

 of the exchequer, and the attorney-general of England or Ireland, and 

 lord-advocate of Scotland, in order that proceedings may be taken to 

 compel them to account; unless, on the defaulter's application, the 

 lords of the treasxiry think it proper to stay the proceedings for a 

 reasonable time. By the stat. 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 121, it is enacted, that 

 at the four quarter-days, the 6th day of January, 5th day of April, 

 5th day of July, and the 10th day of October, general imprest certi- 

 ficates shall be made out at the exchequer, specifying all moneys and 

 exchequer bills issued at the receipt of the exchequer within the pre- 

 ceding quarter, and these certificates are transmitted to the commis- 

 sioners of audit within thirty days after each quarter-day ; and by the 

 10th section of 46 Geo. III. c. 141, the paymaster of the forces, the 

 treasurers of the navy and ordnance, and all other public officers, who 

 issue to any persons money for public services by way 6f imprest or on 

 account, are required within three months after the 31st December in 

 every year (of at shorter periods if ordered by the lords of the 

 treasury, see 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 121, s. 6) to transmit to the com- 

 missioners of audit a certificate of such moneys, with the mimes of the 

 persons to whom paid, and the commissioners are forthwith to take 

 them into consideration. By the above-mentioned statute, 1 & 2 

 Geo. IV. c. 121, various regulations have been made respecting the 

 mode of conducting the business of the commissioners of audit, by which 

 the ancient and inconvenient system of keeping the public accounts 

 has been superseded. The whole of the arrangements in the Audit- 

 office are now subjected to the control of the lords of the treasury, 

 who are authorised to make such orders and regulations for conducting 

 the business of the office as they may think expedient, and best calcu- 

 lated to ensure the efficient discharge of the duties of the commis- 

 sioners and other officers. By the 2 Will. IV. e. 26, the above 

 commissioners are authorised to audit the accounts of receipt and 

 expenditure of the colonial revenues ; and the 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 99, 

 transfers the powers and functions of the commissioners of public 

 accounts in Ireland to the commissioners for auditing the public 

 accounts of Great Britain. By the 9 & 10 Viet. c. 92, the accounts of 

 the receipt and expenditure of the naval and military departments 

 are also referred to the Audit commissioners, whose reports thereon 

 are to be laid before the House of Commons on the 31st of January 

 and the 1st of June in each yeac 



AUGER. The auger is an instrument for boring holes in wood, 

 larger than can be made with an awl or a gimlet. In its simple form, 

 this instrument is too well known to need description. A few yeai s 

 ago a new kind of auger was invented, and introduced into some of 

 our manufacturing establishments ; it differs from the common auger 

 in having a spiral like that of a corkscrew, which empties itself of 

 the fragments of wood without having need to be withdrawn from 

 the bore. 



In 1854 an English patent was taken out by Mr. Ransom Cook, for 

 an auger which had been patented in America a year and a half 

 earlier. The construction had been suggested to him by a careful 

 study of the mode of working adopted by certain insects. It con- 

 sisted in giving to the lips or cutting edges of boring tools a curved or 

 gouge shape at their extremities ; also in the under-cutting or back- 

 sloping of those edges, in order to give them a sliding or drawing 

 movement in cutting. The improvement was very marked. In com- 

 parison with the common instruments, this auger possessed superior 



