take and record the affidavit of a kinsman of the dead, to the
effect that the corpse was actually buried in woollen fabric. The
upper classes, however, preferred to bury in linen, and to pay the
fine of 5L. When Mistress Oldfield, the famous actress, was
interred in 1730, her body was arrayed "in a very fine Brussels lace
headdress, a holland shift with a tucker and double ruffles of the
same lace, and a pair of new kid gloves."

In 1694 an empty exchequer was replenished by a tax on marriages,
births, and burials, the very extortion which had been feared by the
insurgents in the Pilgrimage of Grace. The tax collectors had
access without payment of fee to the registers. The registration of
births was discontinued when the Taxation Acts expired. An attempt
to introduce the registration of births was made in 1753, but
unsuccessfully. The public had the old superstitious dread of
anything like a census. Moreover, the custom was denounced as
"French," and therefore abominable. In the same way it was thought
telling to call the cloture "the French gag" during some recent
discussions of parliamentary rules. In 1783 the parish register was
again made the instrument of taxation, and threepence was charged on
every entry. Thus "the clergyman was placed in the invidious light
of a tax collector, and as the poor were often unable or unwilling
to pay the tax, the clergy had a direct inducement to retain their
good-will by keeping the registers defective."

It is easy to imagine the indignation in Scotland when "bang went
saxpence" every time a poor man had twins! Of course the Scotch
rose up against this unparalleled extortion. At last, in 1812,
"Rose's Act" was passed. It is styled "an Act for the better
regulating and preserving registers of births," but the registration