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 AUDE AUDOUIN 103 dlestick biddings ; " and in the north of Eng- land still occur sales where the bidders do not know each other's offers "dumb biddings." In point of law, the auctioneer is the seller's agent, and as such has a special property in the goods, a lien upon them or upon the purchase money, where he is authorized to receive it, for his commission, the auction duty, and the charges of the sale. If he exceed his authority, or refuse to give the name of his principal, he renders himself personally liable. In sales of real estate he is usually authorized to receive the deposit, but not the residue of the purchase money. The conditions of sale and the plans and description of the property, if printed or written, control the oral statements of the auc- tioneer. Slight inaccuracies of description do not, but substantial ones do avoid the sale. A bid at an auction may be retracted before the hammer is down, and, in cases where a written entry is required to complete the sale, before that is made. For a bid is only an offer, which does not bind either party until assented to. Fraud upon either side avoids the sale. The employment of bidders by the owner is or is not illegal, according as circumstances tend to show bad or good faith. To employ them in order to prevent a sacrifice by buying in the property is, except where the sale is adver- tised as being "without reserve," allowable; but it is a fraud to use them for the purpose of enhancing the price through a fictitious com- petition. On the other hand, the sale is void if the purchaser prevails upon others to desist from bidding by appeals to their sympathy or false representations. Al'DE, a maritime department of France, in Languedoc, bounded by the Mediterranean and the departments of Pyr6nees-Orientales, Ari6ge, Haute-Garonne, Tarn, and Herault; area, 2,437 sq. m. ; pop. in 1872, 285,927. It is sub- ject to violent gales. The surface is mountain- ous and hilly, the soil generally productive. The canal of Languedoc intersects the northern part of the department from W. to E., and the canal of Robine or Narbonne crosses the east- ern portion from N. to 8. Corn and wine are abundant, and are exported. The river Aude rises near its S. border in Pyr6n6es-Orientales, flows N". as far as Carcassonne, and then along the S. bank of the Languedoc canal to Nar- bonne, a few miles E. of which it falls into the Mediterranean. The Lers, an affluent of the Ariege, flows along the W. border. The de- partment is divided into the arrondissements of Carcassonne, Castelnaudary, Limonx, and Narbonne. It has manufactures of woollen cloths, paper, iron ware, brandy, salt, and earthenware. Capital, Carcassonne. AUDEBERT, Jean Baptist*, a French painter and naturalist, born at Rochefort in 1759, died in 1800. He studied painting in Paris, and be- came distinguished for his miniatures. Haying been employed to paint some specimens of natural history, he acquired an absorbing in- terest in the science. A journey through England and Holland furnished materials for a number of admirable designs, which appeared shortly afterward in Olivier's Histoire des in- sectes. The artist next prepared his Histoire naturelle des singes, des makis et des galeopi- theques (Paris, 1800), containing 16 colored plates, and showing an equal facility in the author as designer, engraver, and writer. The splendor of his coloring had never been equalled, and by certain ingenious processes, such as the application of gold leaf variously tinted, he was enabled to reproduce the most gorgeous plu- mage of birds and insects. His substitution of oils for water colors is also considered a great improvement in the art of animal illustration. His other works, Histoire generate des colibrix, des oiseaux-mouches, des jacamars et des pro- merops (Paris, 1802), and Histoire naturelle des ffrimpereaux et des oiseaux de paradis, were published after his death, and are still among the most esteemed of their kind. AUDLEY, Thomas, lord, lord chancellor of England in the reign of Henry VIII., supposed to have been born at Earl's Colne, in Essex, died at his London residence in 1544. In 1529 he was made speaker of the house of commons in that long parliament which broke up the smaller religious houses throughout the king- dom. In 1532 he was knighted, and succeeded Sir Thomas More as keeper of the great seal, and on Jan. 26, 1533, became lord chancellor of England, which office he retained until his death. Audley presided at the trial of Sir Thomas More. In the distribution of the church lands, the priory of the canons of the Holy Trinity, usually called Christ church, in Lon- don, with all the real estate of the establish- ment, and the great abbey of Walden in Essex, fell to his share. The former he altered into a town residence for himself. In 1538 he was created Baron Audley of Walden. In 1542 he gave certain lands toward the support of the institution then known as Buckingham college, Oxford, which was thereupon incorporated under the name of St. Mary Magdalen. AUDOUARD, Olyntpe, a French traveller and writer, born about 1830. Having separated from her husband, who was a notary of Mar- seilles, she visited Egypt, Turkey, Russia, and the United States, contributing to newspapers and delivering lectures in New York (1868) and in Paris (1869). Her principal works are : Comment aiment les hommes (1861 ; 3d ed., 1865) ; Les mysteres du serail et des harems turcs (1863) ; Les mysteres de VEgypte devoiles (1865) ; Guerre aux hommes (1866) ; V Orient, et ses peupladei (1867) ; Lettre aux deputes, les droits de la femme (1867); and A trotters VAmerique du Nord (Paris, 1871). AtDOUIlV, Jean Victor, a French entomologist, born in Paris, April 27, 1797, died Nov. 9, 1841. He married the daughter of Alexandre Brongniart, with whom and with Dumas he established in 1824 the Annales des sciences naturelles. He succeeded Latreille as profes- sor of entomology at the museum, obtained his