Johnston of Warri.ston. By William Morison. (Oliphant, Anderson, and Ferrier.
is 6d.)—Though Johnston of Warriston played an important part in Scotch politics, civil and ecclesiasti- cal, during the second half of the seventeenth century, this is not exactly an interesting book. The story is told clearly and forcibly, and it is the story of momentous events, bat we see little or nothing of the man himself. All the personal interest that attaches to his life is contained in a few pages, and then it belongs to his children rather than to himself. We finish the volume without any clear conception of what Johnston was, beyond the fact that he was a leading member of the Covenant party. We do indeed get an occasional glimpse into his mind. He reproached himself, for instance, with his taking office under Cromwell; it seemed a sin against Presbyterian principles. It was a fault, his biographer thinks, for which an historian would hardly have ventured to blame him. His end reflected the greatest discredit on the Government of the Restoration. Charles, who was as absolutely without mercy as he was without
scruple, had him seized in France and brought over to Scotland and executed. We would commend this story to the attention of the modern Jacobites.
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