REFORMATION, criminal law. The act of bringing back a criminal to such a sense of justice, so that he may live in society without any detriment to it.

2. The object of the criminal law ought to be to reform the criminal, while it protects society by his punishment. One of the best attempts at reformation is the plan of solitary confinement in a penitentiary. While the convict has time to reflect he cannot be injured by evil example or corrupt communication.

TO REFRESH. To reexamine a subject by having a reference to something connected with it.

2. A witness has a right to examine a memorandum or paper which he made in relation to certain facts, when the same occurred, in order to refresh his memory, but the paper or memorandum itself is not evidence. 5 Wend. 301; 12 S. & R. 328; 6 Pick. 222; 1 A. K. Marsh. 188; 2 Conn. 213. See 1 Rep. Const. Ct. 336, 373, 423.

TO REFUND. To pay back by the party who has received it, to the party who has paid it, money which ought not to have been paid.

2. On a deficiency of assets, executors and administrators cum testamento annexo, are entitled to have refunded to them legacies which they may have paid, or so much as may be necessary. to pay the debts of the testator; and in order to insure this, they are generally authorized to require a refunding bond. Vide 8 Vin. Ab. 418; 18 In Vin. Ab. 273; Bac. Ab. Legacies, H.

REFUSAL. The act of declining to receive or to do something.

2. A grantee may refuse a title, vide Assent; one appointed executor may refuse to act as such. la some cases, a neglect to perform a duty which the party is required by law or his agreement to do, will amount to a refusal.

REGENCY. The authority of the person in monarchical countries invested with the right of governing the state in the name of the monarch, during his minority, absence, sickness or other inability.

REGENT. 1. A ruler, a governor. The term is usually applied to one who governs a regency, or rules in the place of another.

2. In the canon law, it signifies a master or professor of a college. Dict. du Dr. Call. h. t. 3. It sometimes means simply a ruler, director, or superintendent; as, in New York, where the board who have the superintendence of all the colleges, academies and schools, are called the regents of the University of the state of New York.