APPENDIX, 167 



The bargain may be concluded by : — 



1. Paying for the lot. 



2. Paying something on account. 



3. Shaking hands. 



4. The seller administering a blow with his hand upon the 

 open hand of the buyer. 



5. Any local, if well understood, custom of concluding a 

 bargain. 



Conversion of Warranty. 



When an oral warranty is followed by a written one, as is 

 frequently the case, the oral warranty is then legally super- 

 ceded by the written one. This is too frequently the cause 

 of atrocious deceit : thus, a seller lauds his wares clamor- 

 ously, and so effects a sale. He then gives a written receipt 

 and warranty, taking care to limit the warranty to the 

 narrowest bounds. The spoken representation has set forth 

 the horse as five years old, sound as a bell of brass, quiet as 

 a lamb, would rather carry petticoats than eat a feed of 

 corn ; up to sixteen stone ; never refused a fence in his Ufe ; 

 looks on six-barred gates and stone walls as nothing at all ; 

 and so on. 



The vendor knows quite well that he can avoid the 

 consequences of his superlaudation by simply putting in 

 writing the barest warranty the buyer will take, and very 

 often confines himself to writing that the horse is warranted 

 sound. The lamb may be found to kick and bite ; shudder 

 and sv/eat at the approach of petticoats ; but to do neither 

 at the approach of a feed of corn ; to have no idea of leap- 

 ing, and indeed to be utterly unUke the animal represented. 



Spoken Warranties. 



An affirmation at the time of sale is a warranty, provided 

 that it can be proved to have been so intended. Whether 

 or not a warranty is intended, is a question for a jury to 



