Dated at the Guildhall, London, the 29th day of November 1679, in the 31 year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord Charles the Second, by the grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the faith, etc. GOD SAVE THE KING. THE POPISH PANIC (1681). The Monument, in commemoration of the Great Fire of 1666, was erected in 1671 near Pudding Lane, where the fire began, and the following inscription was added in 1681. The suspicion, which was attached to the Roman Catholics, of deliberately setting fire to the City was altogether unreasonable and baseless, but the people who had listened to Titus Oates were ready to believe anything, and the inscription is sufficient indication of the prevalent feeling against Papists. It is referred to by Pope—himself a Roman Catholic—in the lines: "Where London's column, pointing to the skies, Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies." 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._