MEMORANDUM CHECK. It is not unusual among merchants, when one makes a tem- porary loan from another, to give the lender a check on a bank, with the express or implied agreement that it shall be redeemed by the maker himself, and that it shall not be presented at the bank for payment. If passed to a third person, it will be valid in his hands, like any other check. 11 Paige, R. 612.

MEMORIAL. A petition or representation made by one or more individuals to a legislative or other body. When such instrument is addressed to a court, it is called a petition.

MEMORY. Understanding; a capacity to make contracts, a will, or to commit a crime, so far as intention is necessary.

2. Memory is sometimes employed to express the capacity of the understanding, and sometimes its power; when we speak of a retentive memory, we use it in the former sense; when of a ready memory, in the latter. Shelf. on Lun. Intr. 29, 30.

3. Memory, in another sense, is the reputation, good or bad, which a man leaves at his death. This memory, when good, is highly prized by the relations of the deceased, and it is therefore libelous to throw a shade over the memory of the dead, when the writing has a tendency to create a breach of the peace, by inciting the friends and relations of the deceased to avenge the insult offered to the family. 4 T. R. 126; 5 Co. R. 125; Hawk. b. 1, c. 73, s. 1.

MEMORY, TIME OF. According to the English common law, which has been altered by 2 & 3 Wm. IV., c. 71, the time of memory commenced from the reign of Richard the First, A. D. 1189. 2 Bl. Com. 31.

2. But proof of a regular usage for twenty years, not explained or contradicted, is evidence upon which many public and private rights are held, and sufficient for a jury in finding the existence of an immemorial custom or prescription. 2 Saund. 175, a, d; Peake's Ev. 336; 2 Price's R. 450; 4 Price's R. 198.

MENACE. A threat; a declaration of an intention to cause evil to happen to another.

2. When menaces to do an injury to another have been made, the party making them may, in general, be held to bail to keep the peace; and, when followed by any inconvenience or loss, the injured party has a civil action against the wrong doer. Com. Dig. Battery, D; Vin. Ab. h. t.; Bac. Ab. Assault; Co. Litt. 161 a, 162 b, 253 b; 2 Lutw. 1428. Vide Threat.