seditious newsletters in an attempt to exclude James II, Duke of York, from the succession to the throne on the grounds that he was Catholic. The Protestants denounced the concern as a design of the Duke of York and the Popish party. As a result, the Penny Post was taken over by the Crown authorities in that year and became part of the existing General Post Office. From that point on the postal rates gradually increased. Before the emergence of the Penny Post the profits of the existing General Post Office were assigned by Parliament in 1663 to the Duke of York, who now had similar designs on Dockwra's lucrative Penny Post. As the Penny Post proved to be a great success and a potential new source of constant revenue the English government and the Duke of York at the time fined Dockwra £100 for contempt, claiming it infringed the monopoly of the General Post Office, and took control of the Penny Post's operations in 1682, bringing that enterprise to an end. Less than a month later the London Penny Post was made a branch of the General Post Office. For compensation of his losses Dockwra obtained a pension of £500 a year after the Revolution of 1688. Over the years successive governments used the profits from the General Post Office and the London Penny Post as revenue. Much of the revenue that was being generated by the Penny Post was used to finance the various and almost continuous wars with France. Because the demands of the wars were so great, each time more money was needed to finance them the cost of postage was increased dramatically. This led to increasing public dissatisfaction and criticism of the high postage rates. At one point to send a letter across London the rates were as much as a day's wages for many. This went on for more than 100 years, and as a result of the mounting public complaints, a Committee of Enquiry was finally set up in 1835. Because of the excesses and indiscretions of the postal authorities and the much-needed reforms, Rowland Hill published a pamphlet entitled Post Office Reform, which led to various reforms and the introduction of the first postage stamp, the Penny Black. Because of its simplicity and ease of use the postage stamp brought reform to the post office, much like that of William Dockwra when