a Scottish antiquarian and political writer, in his 1794 book The Life of Thomas Ruddiman It predated the Mercurius Gallobelgicus which is widely accepted in studies of the history of journalism to be the true first newspaper which was written in Latin and appeared in 1594 in Cologne, Germany, and distributed across Europe. Chalmers adduced the Mercurie as evidence of English invention, saying It may gratify our national pride to be told, that mankind are indebted to the wisdom of Elizabeth, and the prudence of Burleigh, for the first newspaper. The uncovering of the hoax Chalmers's assertion was unchallenged for 45 years until Thomas Watts uncovered the existence of the original manuscript in the archives of the British Museum in 1839. He identified the handwriting on the manuscript as being identical to that used in a letter from Yorke as part of Dr Birch's collection. There were other inconsistencies, including the typeface and some spellings and Watts also found corrections on the manuscript in Dr Birch's handwriting The motivation of the authors in creating the English Mercurie is unknown, although it has been speculated that it was not an intentional attempt to mislead, but rather a literary game. Modern uses of the English Mercurie British television network Channel 4 contained a reference to The English Mercurie as "a newspaper report of Drake's role in the Spanish Armada" in a website for its series Elizabeth's Pirates. The National Library of Australia includes The English Mercurie in its catalogue, among other apparently genuine historical documents from the Tudor and Stuart periods. References See also History of journalism Journalistic hoaxes Hoaxes in England Literary forgeries 18th-century hoaxes Spanish Armada