AUCTION (Lat. auetmn). The character of this convenient mode of offering property for sale is correctly indicated by the name. The Latin word audio means an increas ing or enhancement," and an A. is an arrangement for increasing the price by exciting competition amongst purchasers. What is called a Dutch auction, in which the usual mode of proceeding is reversed, the property being offered at a higher price than the seller is willing to accept, and gradually lowered till a pureln.ser is found, is thus no A. at all in the original and proper sense of the term. The A. is of Homan origin, and is said to have been first introduced for the purpose of disposing of spoils taken in war. Such sales were said to take place sub haste (under the spear), from the custom of stick ing a spear into the ground, probably to attract purchasers to the spot. "Conditions of sale," or "articles of romp," as they are called in Scotland, constitute the terms on which the seller offers his property, and form an integral part of the contract between seller and purchaser. The contract is completed by the offer or bidding on the part of the purchaser, and the acceptance by the seller or his representative, which is formally declared by the fall of the auctioneer's or salesman's hammer, the running of a sand glass, the burning of an inch of candle (hence the term "sale by the candle"), or any other means which may have been specified in the conditions of sale. These conditions or articles ought further to narrate honestly and fully the character of the object or the nature of the right to be transferred, to regulate the manner of bidding, prescribe the order in which offerers are to be preferred, and to name a person who shall be empow ered to determine disputes between bidders, and in cases of doubt to declare which is the purchaser. Before the sale commences, these conditions, which are executed on stamped
paper, are read over, or otherwise intimated to intending purchasers. The conditions. thus published, cannot be controlled by any verbal declaration by the auctioneer. The implied conditions, which, in addition to those thus expressed, are binding on the seller and purchaser in all auctions, are: 1. That the seller shall not attempt to raise the price by means of fictitious offers, but shall fairly expose his goods to the competition of pur chasers; and 2. That the purchasers shall not combine to suppress competition. Much doubt has arisen as to the lawfulness of biddings for the exposer. The exposer may set a price below which the thing is not to be sold, which is best and most openly done by fixing an upset price, or he may expressly reserve to himself a power to offer. "But if the sale is declared to be without reserve, or at the pleasure of the company, the plain meaning and effect of this, even in England, is held to be to bar all biddings in behalf of the seller." "In Scotland, the law condemns absolutely such interference." It has been said that if there be no upset price, and no agreement to sell at the pleasure of the company, the owner may bid, but that is not law, or is at least too broadly laid (lown." Bell's Commentaries, i. 97, edit. 1858. The A. duties were repealed by 8 and 9 Vict. c. 15.