DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

( 29 ) asserted that Queen Elizabeth, one of the greatest sovereigns, as she was one of the most disagreeable women that ever lived, commanded Lord Burleigh, her Prime Minister, to issue a publication in the nature of a newspaper. ‘This was the Hnglish Mercurie, whose mission was to warn the country of false reports, and at the same time to supply it with authentic information with respect to the threatened invasion by Spain, and of the movements of the Spanish Armada. Three numbers of this periodical are still pre- served in the British Museum, the first of them being No. 50, and bears the date July 23rd, 1588. It says that the Armada was seen on the 20th in ‘the chops of the Channel,’ gives an account of the English fleet, which consisted of 80 sail, and that of the Spanish, which consisted of 150, and proceeds to remark that the British sailors hailed their enemies with cheers and acclamations of joy. Un- fortunately the authenticity of the English Mercurie is now being disputed. Historians and scholars look upon it as a forgery of a later day. To Germany must be conceded the honour of having founded the first really authentic newspaper. This was the Frankfurter Journal, which is still continued in a daily form, and which was established at Frankfort as a weekly periodical in 1615. Tsolated German pamphlets had already appeared in 1498.