JOHNSTONE, ROBERT, a Scottish historian, held at one time in great repute, was born at Edinburgh in the latter half of the 16th century. Little is known of his personal history beyond this, that he migrated to London, amassed a large fortune there, bequeathed considerable sums to the University of Edinburgh, and to various towns in Annandale (the nursery of his family), and died in 1639. He was long remembered for his Historia Rerum Britannicarum, &c. ab anno 1572 ad annum 1628, Amst. 1655. This history of his own times was intended by the author as a continuation of Buchanan's work, and really possesses very considerable merits. The narrative is judiciously constructed, the reflections are often very sagacious, and the analysis of character sometimes extremely acute. In point of style it falls far short of its model, yet its general tenor is correctly classical.