VESTED RIGHT. 104 VESTRY. No one has .a vested interest or property right in the rules of the common law as such, or the law as contained in statutes, and, therefore, the law may be changed by statute, even though the amendment may cause damage and hardship to persons who may have taken action relying upon the continuance of the existing law. For ex- ample, a great business may be established and built up under a high tariff act, which would be rendered very unprofitable if the tariff was reduced, but the owners of such an enterprise have no constitutional right to object to an amendment of the taritl' act. Thus, also, the rules of descent may be changed, as the living have no heirs, but such a change would not affect the rights of persons who inherHed property upon the death of ancestors before the amendment. Consult Cooley, Constitutional Limitations; Pkopertt, and "the authorities there referred to. VESTERAS, ves'ter-os'. The capital of the Province of Vestmanland, Sweden, on a northern baj' of Lake IMtilar, 69 miles by rail northwest of Stockholm (Map: Sweden. G 7). The hand- some Gothic cathedral, built by Birger before 1271 and since then twice restored, has a tower 309 feet high, the loftiest in Sweden. The Epis- copal library of moi-e than 12.000 volumes con- tains the books taken by the Swedes from Mainz in the Thirty Years' War. There are iron and copper mines in the vicinity of the town. Vitriol is manufactured. The vegetables raised here are in high repute. Population, in 1900, 11,999. During the Jliddle Ages VesterAs was of commer- cial prominence. At a diet held here in 1527 Gustavus Vasa secured the establishment of Protestantism in Sweden. VESTIBULE (Lat. vestihuliim, fore-court, entrance, prnlialily connected with Vesta, goddess of the hearth and home, Gk. aaru, asti), city, Skt. i-as, to dwell : less plausibly associated with Lat. ve-, apart + stabvlum. abode). An en- trance lobby preceding the more important en- trance-hall or other interior space for general circulation and communication. In dwellings and small buildings it is the space between the outer or 'storm' door and the inner entrance door. Its function is, first, to provide an intermediate space between the out-door air and the interior of the building, so that the wind, rain, heat, or cold from out of doors may not penetrate the building with every entrance or exit of one or more per- sons ; secondly, to form an approach or gradual transition from the exterior architecture to that of the interior; thirdly (this especially in ancient Roman bviildings). to provide a waiting place sheltered and inclosed for persons awaiting ad- mission to the house or hall. In this sense the term is also often applied to an ante-room inter- vening between a public hall, corridor, or lobby and an imjiortant ofTice or suite of offices, and to the lobliy intervening between the piblic hall of an apartment-house and the gen<'ral private hall or corridor of any of the apartments. The narthex of a church or basilica is also called the vestibule. VESTIGIAL (from Lat. vcstiqium, foot- print) OH RUDIMENTARY STRUCTURES. Organs which in some plants and animals appear not to fiinction, but which resemble fvinctional organs in others, especially lower groups. They are believed to be pliylogenetic and formerly use- ful. There are reasons for believing th.at ves- tigial structures are rarely, if ever, present in plants. VESTMENTS, Sacked. See CosTCiiE, Ec- clesiastical. VES'TRIS, Madame (Lucia Elizabeth Mathews, nee Baetolozzi) (1797-1856). An English actress, bom in London. At sixteen years of age she was married to Armand Vestris, a celebrated dancer and ballet-master at the King's Theatre. She then studied singing under Corri and made her debut in Winter's /( Ratio di Proserpina in 1815 at the King's Theatre, Lon- don. She became a favorite artist with the pub- lic at large and appeared with varying success at different places in England and France. A large part of her success was undoubtedly due to her good fortune in securing great artists to appear with her. For instance, in Paris she played Camille in Les Horaces with the cele- brated Talma as Eoraee. Her greatest English suc- cess was as Tilla in the Siege of Belgrade (Lon- don. 1820), which permanently establi-shed her in London as a popular favorite. Here again she had the advantage of introducing a number of very popular ballads such as Cherry Ripe, I've Been Roaming, and Meet Me hy Moonlight Alone. She accumulated a considerable fortune and be- came manager in turn of the Olympic. Covent Garden, and Lyceum theatres. Her husband de- serted her in 1817. She married in 1838 Charles Mathews the younger, and together" with him pro- duced at Drury Lane the most important operas and musical productions of the period. She died in London. VESTRY (OF., Fr. vestiaire, from Lat. res- tiarium, wardrobe, neu. sg. of vestiariii-s, relating to clothing, from vestis, clothing: connected with Gk. io-Br/s, esthes, clothing, evi/ivai. heiiny- nui, Skt. vas, to clothe, Goth, icasti, clothing, wasjan, AS. u-erian. Eng. ipcar) . The repre- sentative and administrative body in parishes of the Church of England and of the Episcopal Church in the United States. In England vestries are either general or common, i.e. composed of all the parishioners Avho are ratepayers, or select, i.e. composed of certain select parish- ioners, the number being fixed by custom or statute. Anciently all the affairs of a parish, as such, whether ecclesiastical or civil, were regu- lated in vestry. At the present time, however, the only duties of an ecclesiastical nature which a vestry has to perform are the election of a chiirch warden (q.v.), the levying of church rates, and the reception of the accounts of churcli trustees. A vestry cannot interfere (excejit by observation and com)>laint) with the manner in W'hich the services in the church are conducted. .Mthough the minister is the proper head of the vestry, and, if present, is entitled to preside at all meetings, he is not an essential part of it. The vestry in .mcrican jjarishes is a much more highly developed liody with wider powers. The number of vestrymen is fixed by the statute law of each State. They. together with two wardens, arc elected by the members of the con- gregation at the ;innial parish meeting to serve for one year. The rector is c.c o/Jicio a member of the vestry, and is entitled to preside, if present, at all its meetings. The function of tlie vestry is to represent the congregation in law, to have
