The inscription was effaced during the reign of James II., was again placed on the base of the column in the reign of William III., and was finally removed in 1831.
This Pillar was set vp in Perpetvall Remembrance of that most dreadful burning of this Protestant city, begun and carryed on by ye treachery and malice of ye Popish faction, in ye beginning of Septem in ye year of our Lord 1666, in order to ye carrying on their horrid Plott for extirpating the Protestant Religion and old English liberty, and the introducing Popery and Slavery.
POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS (1681).
The Government monopoly of Post Office business dates back to the reign of James I., who appointed a Postmaster to have the "sole taking up, sending, and conveying of all packets and letters concerning our service or business to be despatched to foreign parts," others being forbidden to convey letters; and our postal system was first really founded by an Act of Parliament in 1656 "to settle the postage of England, Scotland, and Ireland." It ordered the erection of one general post office, and one officer styled the Postmaster-General of England and Comptroller of the Post Office. Private individuals occasionally attempted to establish postal services, and in 1680 William Dockwra set up a profitable penny post for London. This, like Povey's halfpenny post in 1708, was suppressed by a lawsuit, and the management and profits of the Post Office were definitely attached to the Government.
Source.—Delaunay's Present State of London, p. 345.
This Office is now kept in Lombard Street, formerly in Bishopsgate Street; the profits of it are by Act of Parliament settled on his Royal Highness the Duke of York. But the King, by Letters Patents, under the Great Seal of England, constitutes the Postmaster General.
From this General Office, letters and packets are despatched—
On Mondays.
To France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Flanders, Switzerland, Denmark, Kent, and the Downs.