AUDITOR (Lat. audio, I hear). the name given to certain officers appointed to examine accounts in behalf either of the government, of courts at law, of corporations, or of private persons. The term doubtless owes its origin to the old practice of delivering accounts rirts vore.—AUDIT-OFFICE. In 1785. public auditors were appointed, under the title of "Commissioners for Auditing the Public Accounts," by 2 Geo. III. e. 52, by which the patents of lord Sondes and lord Mountstuart, as auditors of the imprests, were vacated. the sum of per annum being made payable to each of them for life, iu lieu of a percentage which had been paid them on the amount of expenditure audited. Many subsequent statutes have been passed for the purpose of extending and defining the duties of these commissioners, and regulating the business of the audit•office. The commissioners of audit are empowered to call on all public accountants to account fur moneys or stores intrusted to them; and, should they fail to do so, are required to certify their names to the remernbrancer of the exchequer, and the attorney-general of England or Ireland. or the lord advocate of Scotland, in order that they may be proceeded against as defaulters. These proceedings, however, may be stayed her a time by the lords of the treasury, by whom the whole arrangements of the audit-ofilee are controlled, on the application of the accused. The accounts of the ordnance, of the army and navy, and
the land revenue, are now subjected to examination in the audit-office. By 2 Will. IV., c. 99, the powers and functions of the commissioners of public accounts in Ireland were transferred to the commissioners for Great Britain. The present establishmet:t at the audit-oflice consists of a chairman, five commissioners, a secretory, and a large number of inspectors and examiners. The patronage is in the. lords of the treasu•y.—Auocroft OF THE COURT Or SESSION, in Scotland, is an officer whose duties consist in taxing the costs of suits in which expenses are found due, a remit being made to him for that purpose, either by a division of the court or a lord ordinary. The auditor returns a report to the judge or court making the remit, by whom decree is pronounced for the amount of the taxed account. Objections to the auditor's report may he stated to the judge or court. The nomination of the auditor is in the crown, the office being held ad ritual out ealpant. In the inferior courts an officer with corresponding powers is usually appointed by the court in which he officiates. The office of auditor of the court of session corresponds in many respects to that of the taxing-masters in the court of chancery. In Germany the name auditor is applied to junior legal functionaries.