AUDE AUDITOR. 



333 



the excise by bond, themselves in 1000 and two 

 sureties in ,200 each, to deliver in within twenty- 

 eight days of any sale a true and particular account 

 ot such sale, and to pay the duties on the same. 

 Auctioneers refusing or delaying to pay the duties 

 within the specified time forfeit their bond and the 

 bonds of their sureties, and double the amount of 

 the duties. (19 Geo. 3. c. 56.) Auctioneers carry- 

 ing on their trade without the limits of the head of- 

 fice give bond themselves in 500 and two sureties 

 in jtciO each, to render an account of the duties ac- 

 cruing on sales, and to pay them within six weeks, 

 under the penalties already mentioned. (19 Geo. III. 

 c. 56. and 38 Geo. III. c. 54.) A licensed auctioneer 

 going from town to town by a public stage coach, and 

 sending goods by a public conveyance, and selling 

 on commission by retail or auction, is a trading per- 

 son within the 50 Geo. III. c. 41. $ 6, and must take 

 out a hawker's and pedlar's license. It has long been 

 a common practice at certain auctions (called there- 

 fore mock auctions) to employ puffers, or mock bid- 

 ders, to raise the value of the articles sold by their ap- 

 parent competition, and many questions have grown 

 out of it. It was long ago decided, that if the owner of 

 an estate, put up to sale by auction, employ puffers 

 to bid for him, it is a fraud on the real bidder, and 

 the highest bidder may refuse to complete, his con- 

 tract. (6 T. Rep. 642.) But it seems as if the mere 

 employment of puffers under any circumstances were 

 now held to be illegal. " The inclination of the 

 courts at the present time is, that a sale by auction 

 should be conducted in the most open and public 

 manner possible ; that there should be no reserve on 

 the part of the seller, and no collusion on the part 

 of the buyers. Puffing is illegal, according to a late 

 case, even though there be only one puffer ; and it 

 was then decided that the recognized practice at 

 auctions of employing such persons to bid upon the 

 sale of horses could not be sustained." (fVoolrych 

 on Commercial Law, p. 262.) A party bidding at an 

 auction may retract his offer at any time before the 

 hammer is down. Another clearly established prin- 

 ciple is, that verbal declarations by an auctioneer are 

 not to be suffered to control the printed conditions 

 of sale ; and these, when pasted up under the box of 

 the auctioneer, are held to be sufficiently notified to 

 purchasers. Auctioneers, like all other agents, 

 should carefully observe their instructions. Should 

 those who employ them sustain any damage through 

 their carelessness or inattention, they will oe respon- 

 sible. They must also answer for the consequences, 

 if they sell the property entrusted to their care for 

 less than the price set upon it by the owners, or in a 

 way contrary to order. An auctioneer who has duly 

 paid the license duty is not liable, in the city of Lon- 

 don, to the penalties for acting as a broker without 

 being admitted agreeably to the 6 Anne, c. 16. The 

 establishment of mock auctions is said to be a com- 

 mon practice among swindlers in London. Persons 

 are frequently placed at the doors of such auctions, 

 denominated barkers, to invite strangers to come in ; 

 and puffers are in wait to bid up the article much be- 

 yond its value. A stranger making an offer at such 

 an auction is almost sure to have the article knocked 

 down to him. Plated goods are often disposed of at 

 these auctions ; but it is almost needless to add, that 

 they are of very inferior quality. Attempts have 

 sometimes been made to suppress mock auctions, 

 but hitherto without much success. 



AUDE, department of; a French department \n 

 the former province of Languedoc. See Depart- 

 ment. 



AUDEBERT, Jean Baptiste ; united, in a high de- 

 gree, the talents of an engraver with the knowledge 

 of natural history. He was bom at Rochefort in 



1759, went, at the age of IS, to Paris, to learn draw- 

 ing and painting, and made himself a skilful minia- 

 ture painter. In 1789, he became acquainted with 

 Gigot d'Orcy, a great lover and promoter of natural 

 history, who possessed a vast collection, the rarest 

 specimens of which he employed A. to paint, and 

 afterwards sent him to England and Holland, whence 

 lie brought back a number of designs, which have 

 been used in Olivier's History of Insects. This oc- 

 cupation awakened in him a taste for natural history. 

 He now undertook some works which laid the foun- 

 dation of his fame. The first was, Histoire Naturelle 

 des Singes, des Makis, et des Galeopithegiies (Paris, 

 1800, folio), in which he shows himself an able 

 draughtsman, engraver, and writer. With regard to 

 colouring, so essential in natural history, he brought 

 it to a greater perfection than it had ever before at- 

 tained. Not satisfied with laying different colours on 

 the same plate, so as to produce a kind of painting, 

 he went farther, and, instead of water-colours, used 

 the more durable oil-colours. He carried his art to 

 still greater perfection, by using gold in his impres- 

 sions, the colour of which he changed in different 

 ways, in order to imitate the splendour of his pat- 

 terns. Natural history was greatly benefited by his 

 work, the splendour of which was astonishing. His 

 Histoire des Colibris, des Oiseaux-Mouches, des Jaca- 

 mars,et desPro merops (Paris, 1802, folio), is esteem- 

 ed the most complete work that has appeared in this 

 department. Fifteen copies were struck off with 

 golden letters. Scarcely was this work begun, when 

 A. formed new plans, for the execution of which 

 the longest life would hardly have been sufficient. 

 He died in 1800, when he had scarcely begun the 

 Histoire des Grimpereaux et des Oiseaux de Paradis. 

 Both works were excelletitly finished by Desray, who 

 was in possession of the materials, and the process 

 for carrying on the work. A. rendered much assis- 

 tance in the publication of Levaillant's African Birds. 

 He conducted the impressions of the plates as far as 

 the thirteenth number. 



AUDIENCE is used to signify the ceremonies prac- 

 tised in courts at the admission of ambassadors and 

 public ministers to a hearing. It is also the name of 

 courts of justice or tribunals which were established 

 by the Spaniards in America, and formed upon the 

 model of the court of chancery in Spain. It is also 

 the name of one of the ecclesiastical courts in Eng- 

 land, which is held wherever the archbishop calls up 

 a cause to be argued before himself. 



AUDITOR, in the language of the ancient law ; an 

 officer of the courts, whose duty it was to interrogate 

 the parties. In a narrower sense, an officer who 

 overlooks accounts. The auditeur du chatelet. in 

 France, was a member of that court of justice for the 

 city of Paris. (See Chatelet.) This court decided in 

 causes of small importance (where the amount in 

 dispute did not exceed 50 francs). In the eleven 

 high offices of accounts (chambres des compies) of 

 France, the members were divided into conseillers- 

 maitres and conseillers-auditeurs, as the German col- 

 leges (departments of government) are into counsel- 

 lors and assistants. A similar division in the courts 

 of justice was introduced by Napoleon, viz., that of 

 conseilleurs &ndjvge-audi(eursfvf\\\ch distinction still 

 exists. In England, this term is applied to those 

 who examine accounts. The chief accountant's office 

 is called office for auditing the public accounts. The 

 members of the Spanish courts of justice are generally 

 called oydores. This appellation also obtains among 

 the papal officers. The twelve counsellors of the 

 renowned rota Romano (q. v.) are called auditoret 

 sacripalatii apostolici, or auditores rotee. In the pa- 

 pal college of finance, the camera apostolica, at the 

 head of which is the cardhiale camerlingo, there is 



