In case the sale of an estate be declared | void, through defect of title, the duty that has been paid may be claimed again within three months after the time when the defect has been discovered.

It is very common to stipulate that the buyer shall pay the amount of duty in addition to the sums bid by him.

The duty on sales by auction in Great Britain was first imposed during the American war, in 1777 (17 Geo. III. 50), and in Ireland in 1797. In the last twenty years the amount of goods sold in the United Kingdom on which auction-duty was charged has varied from 10,148,571 in 1825, to 6,326,4811. in 1831; and the amount of the duty has been as high as 328,8337. and as low as 218,0847. In 1840 the duty was 320,0581. charged on sales amounting to 8,720,9851. In 1841 the duty amounted to 314,0671.; 296,9647. in 1842, and 284,9167. in 1843. In 1842 it appears, from a table in M'Culloch's Dictionary, that the duty arose from the several articles enumerated below:

On estates, houses, England. Scotland. Ireland. annuities, ships, £ £ £ plate, jewels,&c. 101,536 5,067 6,727 Household furniture, horses, carriages, and other goods & chattels 155,839 14,697 10,124 Sheep's wool.... 2 under 1 Foreign produce (first sale thereof)

17

2865

74

11

260,259 19,841 16,863

During the sitting of the Commissioners of Excise Inquiry they were waited upon by seven of the most eminent auctioneers in London, who represented that the duty of sevenpence in the pound, equivalent to three per cent. on the amount of the purchase-money, had for some time past caused a rapid and universal decrease in the number of actual sales by auction. One auctioneer stated that, in consequence of all sales of property in Chancery being exempt from auction-duty, "many bills are filed in the Court of Chancery, when the property is large, for no other purpose than saving the auction-duty, notwithstanding the great amount of law

expenses." Another of the deputation complained of the duty as "an unequal, oppressive, and impolitie tax," and suggested that instead thereof "there should be an additional ad valorem duty of one per cent. upon all transfers of real property, conveyed by deed or written instrument, whether sold by auction or private contract." The Commissioners in their report (twelfth) state that the auction-duty is open to great objections, and should be "wholly repealed as soon as practicable." They conceive that this impolitic tax has been "borne with patience solely in consequence of the exemptions, either direct or indirect, which the more powerful interests of the country, manufacturing and agricultural, have succeeded in obtaining from its operation." The auction-duty still exists, and the various recommendations of the Commissioners respecting it have not yet been carried into effect.

The Romans imposed taxes on the produce of certain sales, and it may be presumed on all such sales, whether public or private. In the time of Augustus (Dion Cassius, lv. 31), a tax of two per cent. was imposed on the produce of sales of slaves. This tax is spoken of by Tacitus (Ann. xiii. 31) as being then a tax of four per cent. (if the reading is right). In the time of Nero it was enacted that the seller should pay the tax, from which it may be inferred that the buyer had hitherto paid it. The buyers of slaves were generally Romans, and the sellers were foreign dealers. This change in the mode of paying the duty was called a remission of the tax, but as Tacitus observes, it was a remission in name, not in effect, for the tax was still paid by the purchaser in the shape of a higher price. After the civil wars, and during the time of Augustus, a tax of one per cent. was imposed on the produce of sales by auction at Rome. In the time of Tiberius the tax was reduced to one-half per cent. (Tacit., Ann. i. 78, ii. 42); but after the death of Sejanus it was again raised to one per cent. Caligula (Suetonius, Calig. 16) remitted the tax again, by first reducing it to onehalf per cent., and then remitting it altogether. (Dion Cassius, lviii. 16, and the note of Reimarus.)

AUCTIONEER, a person whose pro

fession or business it is to conduct sales by auction. It is his duty, previously to the commencement of every sale, to state the conditions under which the property is offered; to receive 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.

It is a legal implication that an auctioneer is authorized by the highest bidder or purchaser to sign for him the contract of sale, and the fact of the auctioneer's writing down in his book the name of such purchaser is sufficient to bind the purchaser, provided no objection be made by him previous to such entry. An auctioneer can also 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 bid, 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.

Every person acting as an auctioneer in the United Kingdom is required by 6 Geo. IV. c. 81, to take out a licence, which must be renewed on the 5th of July in every year, and for this licence the charge of five pounds is annually made. The penalty for selling by auction without licence cannot be evaded by putting down the biddings on paper, &c., it having been decided that any mode of sale whereby the highest bidder is deemed the purchaser renders a licence necessary. Distinct licences must be taken out for selling various kinds of property, amounting in all to 30l. The London auctioneers would prefer one general licence of 10l. An auctioneer must also enter into a bond with sufficient sureties to deliver to the officers of Excise, within a certain period, a true and particular account of every sale held by him, and to pay the amount of auction-duty accruing thereon.

For

this purpose, twenty-eight days are allowed, within the limits of the chief office of Excise in London, and six weeks beyond those limits. The auctioneers complain of the inconvenience to their sureties of having their bonds renewed annually. The bonds of auctioneers in London are for 1000l., and two sureties of 2001. each; and the bond required from auctioneers in the country is one of 500l. and two sureties of 50l. each.

An auctioneer intending to hold a sale within the limits of the chief office of Excise in London must give two days notice thereof at the said office. If the sale is to be held beyond those limits, three days' notice must be given to the collector of Excise, at the nearest Exciseoffice. Wrecked vessels and their cargo may be sold at any place after only twenty-four hours' notice; but the circumstance must be specially reported to the Board of Excise. (Board Order, 1822.) Green or perishable fruit may also be sold at the port of importation on one day's notice, but not without a catalogue. (Order, 1833.) Imported goods may also be sold at the port of importation after a like notice. (Treasury Warrant, 1834.) These official regulations are from Bateman On the Excise, ed. 1843. The notices here mentioned must be in writing, and signed by the auctioneer, and must specify the particular day when such sale is to be held. It is further obligatory upon him to deliver in a written or printed catalogue, likewise attested by his signature, or by that of his authorized clerk, enumerating every lot and article intended to be offered at such auction. The Commissioners of Excise Inquiry recommended that notices of sales in towns should be restricted to one day; and that books, approved by the Excise, should be kept by the auctioneer for the entry of all sales, and signed by his employer, in substitution of the catalogues now furnished to the Excise. At present, in case of books being returned as imperfect and the property being put up a second time, the duty is chargeable on both sales. He is liable by law for the amount of the auction-duty, but may recover the same from the vendor. "The auctioneer acts for the government, both as the assessor

Not contented with thus organizing a federal judicature, the German princes, who then aimed at establishing constitutional rights, demanded of Maximilian a permanent council or senate, composed partly of members of the diet, who should govern the empire during the frequent absence of the emperor. Maximilian answered indirectly, that he had no objection to appoint a Hofrath, or court council, consisting of such noble and prudent men as he should select, who should perform the duties alluded to by the diet. The latter assembly, nevertheless, persisted, and succeeded for the time in their plan, carrying the point of having a federal senate, called the Regiment, or Reichs Regiment. Maximilian, on his part, founded what he had promised-a hofrath, at Vienna in 1500. By degrees this purely Austrian institution rose on the ruins both of the Imperial Chamber and the Regiment, till it almost superseded the former, and altogether the latter. The Hofrath is the Aulic Council. Its rise at the time that the federal institution declined or perished, marks the simultaneous elevation of the house of Austria over the old and independent spirit of the German confederation.

The judicial functions reserved for the Aulic Council were:-1. All feudal causes; 2. All cases of privilege or reserve in which the emperor was personally concerned; 3. All Italian causes. The merely civil and German cases were referred to the Imperial Chamber. But the Austrian princes made use of the Aulic Council in other than judicial functions. It was with them not only a court of appeal, but a political council, which was called upon to give the monarch advice in weighty matters, more especially of legislation. It thus corresponded with the French Grand Conseil, or Conseil d'Etat. Charles V. modified considerably the Aulic Council, extended its jurisdiction to Italy and the Netherlands, filled it with foreign members, and altered its forms of procedure. But Ferdinand, his successor, hearkening to the complaints of his subjects against these innovations, rendered the court once more

At the extinction of the German empire by the renunciation of Francis II. in 1806, and the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine under the protection of the Emperor Napoleon, the Aulic Council ceased to exist. There is, however, an Aulic Council at Vienna for the affairs of the war department of the Austrian empire; it is called Hofkriegsrath, and consists of twenty-five councillors. The members also of the various boards or chancellories of state for the affairs of Bohemia, Hungary, and Transylvania, Italy, and Gallicia, are styled Aulic Councillors, but are inferior in rank to the councillors of state, of which latter two sit at the head of each board. (Austria as it is, London, 1827.)

AUXILIA. [AIDS.]

AVERAGE is a quantity intermediate to a number of other quantities, so that the sum total of its excesses above those which are less, is equal to the sum total of its defects from those which are greater. Or, the average is the quantity which will remain in each of a number of lots, if we take from one and add to another till all have the same; it being supposed that there is no fund to increase any one lot, except what comes from the reduction of others. Thus, 7 is the average of 2, 3, 4, 6, 13, and 14; for the sum of the excesses of 7 above 2, 3, 4, and 6-that is, the sum of 5, 4, 3, and 1-is 13; and the sum of the defects of 7 from 13 and 14 that is, the sum of 6 and 7-is also Similarly, the average of 6 and 7 is To find the average of any number of quantities, add them all together, an divide by the number of quantities. Thus, in the preceding question, add together 2, 3, 4, 6, 13, and 14, which gives 42; divide by the number of them, or 6, which gives 7, the average.

13.

6.

It must be remembered that the average of a set of averages is not the average of the whole, unless there are equal num of quantities in each set averaged... T