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THE EUROPEAN UNION IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

STRATEGY-MAKING
IN THE EU
FROM FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY
TO EXTERNAL ACTION

Pol Morillas
The European Union in International Affairs

Series Editors
Sebastian Oberthür
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Brussels, Belgium

Knud Erik Jørgensen

Aarhus University
Aarhus, Denmark

Philomena B. Murray
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Australia

Sandra Lavenex
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
This Book Series aims to be a central resource for the growing commu-
nity of scholars and policy-makers who engage with the evolving inter-
face between the EU and international affairs. It provides in-depth,
cutting edge and original contributions of world-class research on the
EU in international affairs by highlighting new developments, insights,
challenges and opportunities. It encompasses analyses of the EU’s inter-
national role, as mediated by its own Member States, in international
institutions and in its strategic bilateral and regional partnerships. Books
in the Series examine evolving EU internal policies that have external
implications and the ways in which these are both driven by, and feed
back into, international developments. Grounded in Political Science,
International Relations, International Political Economy, Law, Sociology
and History, the Series reflects a commitment to interdisciplinary schol-
arship. We welcome book proposals relating to the changing role of the
EU in international affairs across policies and the Union’s relations with
different parts of the world, as well as relations with states and multi-
lateral institutions. We are interested in research on values and norms,
interests and global governance and welcome both theory-informed
studies and studies comparing the EU with other major global actors.
To submit a proposal, please contact Commissioning Editor Ambra
Finotello ambra.finotello@palgrave.com.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14438
 Pol Morillas

Strategy-Making
in the EU
From Foreign and Security Policy to External
Action
Pol Morillas
Barcelona Centre for International
Affairs (CIDOB)
Barcelona, Spain

The European Union in International Affairs

ISBN 978-3-319-98626-5 ISBN 978-3-319-98627-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98627-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951036

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019

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on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
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Cover credit: Nakhorn Yuangkratoke/EyeEm

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The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
“The process […] is as important as the end product of the exercise itself”
Federica Mogherini
High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs
and Security Policy and Vice-President of the
European Commission
Towards an EU Global Strategy - Background,
Process, References
2015

“In strategic terms the journey is almost as important as the destination”

Simon Duke
Europe as a Stronger Global Actor. Challenges
and Strategic Responses
2017
 Acknowledgements

This work stands at the crossroads between academia and the politi-
cal dynamics of EU external action. It is the result of my experience in
EU policy-making structures and the effort to bring my learning to the
research arena. There are thus many people to thank from the action and
reflection domains.
In academia, my first thanks go to Professor Esther Barbé, supervi-
sor of my Ph.D. at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and
mentor in all the stages of my research career. She introduced me to the
European Foreign Policy Observatory, based first at the UAB and now at
IBEI, and has remained a source of inspiration ever since. Also from the
research arena, a big thank you for their valuable inputs and comments
goes to Richard Youngs, Oriol Costa, Elisabeth Johansson-Nogués,
Anna Herranz-Surrallés, Natividad Fernández Sola, Uwe Puetter,
Eduard Soler, Gemma Pinyol, Laia Mestres and an anonymous reviewer
of this work.
I would also like to thank Luis Simón, Christian Kaunert and
Sebastian Oberthür from the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel, where I spent three precious months researching
and doing fieldwork. Their comments to my project have also enriched
the research outputs presented here. Also, the insights of all interviewed
officials in Brussels and other European capitals, who gave me access to
the hermetic domains of EU foreign policy, have become the backbone
of this project.

vii
viii    Acknowledgements

In the Brussels machinery, the first acknowledgement goes to Cristina

Gallach for opening the doors of EU policy-making to me and to the
Spanish Permanent Representation to the EU, where I worked as coor-
dinator of the Political and Security Committee and as Deputy Nicolaidis
during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2010.
Ambassador Carlos Fernández-Arias was kind enough to offer me the
possibility to learn how diplomacy works without being a true insider.
In Barcelona, CIDOB has been my home for intellectual and profes-
sional growth since Narcís Serra asked me to join his team. His trust and
advice have been a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude also goes
to Antoni Segura, Jordi Bacaria and Anna Estrada for enabling me to
work on this personal project in parallel to my professional obligations.
CIDOB’s team of researchers and dedicated professionals has also
provided me with a stimulating environment from where to look at
European developments and to seek new projects and ideas.
Last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to my family, Andreu,
Mercè i Anna, who are a constant source of support, love and advice. It
is to them that this book is dedicated.
 Contents

1 Introduction: Strategy-Making in the Era of

Intergovernmentalism 1

2 An Ever More Intergovernmental EU? From Foreign

and Security Policy to External Action 25

3 EU Strategies and Their Purposes 75

4 The Policy-Making of the European Security Strategy

(2003) 109

5 The Policy-Making of the European Union Global

Strategy (2016) 133

6 Conclusions 181

Interviews List 195

Index 197

ix
 Abbreviations

CARD Coordinated Annual Review on Defence

CFSP Common Foreign and Security Policy
COREPER Committee of Permanent Representatives of the Governments of
the Member States to the European Union
CSDP Common Security and Defence Policy
DG Directorate General
DGE Directorate General for External and Politico-Military Affairs of
the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union
DG RELEX Directorate General for External Relations of the European
Commission
ECHO European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations of
the European Commission
EDAP European Defence Action Plan
EEAS European External Action Service
EPC European Political Cooperation
ESDP European Security and Defence Policy
ESS European Security Strategy
EU European Union
EUGS European Union Global Strategy
EUISS European Union Institute for Security Studies
FAC Foreign Affairs Council
GAC General Affairs Council
GAERC General Affairs and External Relations Council
GRI Inter-Institutional Relations Group of the European Commission
HR High Representative of the Union for Foreign Policy and Security
Policy

xi
xii    Abbreviations

HR/VP High Representative of the Union for Foreign Policy and Security
Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission
IPSD Implementation Plan on Security and Defence
MPCC Military Planning and Conduct Capability
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
PESCO Permanent Structured Cooperation
POCs Points of Contact
PSC Political and Security Committee
QMV Qualified Majority Voting
RIESS Report on the Implementation of the European Security Strategy
TEU Treaty on European Union
TFEU Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
WMD Weapons of Mass Destruction
 List of Tables

Table 2.1 The main characteristics of supranationalism 27

Table 2.2 The main characteristics of intergovernmentalism 28
Table 2.3 The main characteristics of the new intergovernmentalism 32
Table 2.4 Policy-making in EU foreign policy 48
Table 3.1 EU strategies and sub-strategies before and after the Lisbon
Treaty 79
Table 4.1 Summary of the findings of the policy-making process
of the ESS 127
Table 5.1 Summary of the findings of the policy-making process
of the EUGS 167

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Strategy-Making in the Era

of Intergovernmentalism

1.1  Introduction
It has become a truism that the European Union (EU) is a body increas-
ingly ruled by intergovernmentalism. Member states are often portrayed
as the winners of a power contest with supranational institutions, which
have been marginalised in critical decisions of European politics. Some
trace the predominance of intergovernmentalism to the Maastricht
Treaty, well before the re-nationalisation dynamics and sense of disunion
currently inhabiting the EU. Fabbrini (2015: 125) has written:

post-Maastricht intergovernmentalism has recognized that integration

should proceed without (…) going in the supranational direction. On
the contrary, integration should consist in pooling national sovereignties
within intergovernmental institutions. The decision-making power should
not be in the hands of each member state, but in those of the institu-
tions that coordinate the action of the member state governments (the
European Council and the Council).

The trend towards an intergovernmental Union has been reinforced

with the dynamics of a crisis-ridden EU. Member states have taken the
reigns of crisis management, in particular since the Euro crisis. Decision-
making centred on the Council has turned the European Commission
into “little more than a secretariat” and side-lined the European
Parliament (Schmidt 2013: 2; see also Dinan 2011). Member states have

© The Author(s) 2019 1

P. Morillas, Strategy-Making in the EU,
The European Union in International Affairs,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98627-2_1
2 P. MORILLAS

established dynamics based on “hard intergovernmental bargaining and

brinkmanship”, where positive-sum outcomes have often disappeared
(Schimmelfennig 2015; see also Fabbrini 2015).
This has come to the advantage of the most powerful member states,
particularly Germany, who is now at the centre of European power
dynamics. Together with Berlin, the rest of EU capitals have adapted
to the renationalisation dynamics and reasserted the “supremacy” of
the nation-state in European politics (Schimmelfennig 2015; Grygiel
2016). This has created a power asymmetry, not only between creditor
and debtor countries but also between states and institutions, which are
not the main agent of European politics anymore (Torreblanca 2014:
96–105).
External action has supposedly been no stranger to these dynamics.
The crisis in the Eurozone has had implications for both the foreign pol-
icy of the EU and its member states (Youngs 2014; Kundnani 2016).
The current EU governance has reinforced the intergovernmental
dynamics of an intergovernmental policy par excellence—the Common
Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). The prioritisation of national inter-
ests has also reduced the states’ willingness to coordinate their foreign
policies (Youngs 2014: 40) and enhanced the lead of the “big three”—
thus making some member states “more equal than others” in a system
ruled by unanimity (Lehne 2012). Following this logic, the power of
the intergovernmental institutions of the EU, in particular the European
Council and the Council, where foreign policy is designed, debated and
decided, is assumed to have expanded (Lehne 2015).
Yet against this background, a closer look at recent external action
developments seems to suggest different dynamics. This book aims
to demonstrate that the shift towards intergovernmentalism is not so
straightforward when analysing the policy-making process of the most
decisive external action document since the Lisbon Treaty and the imple-
mentation policies that unfold from it. The European Union Global
Strategy (EUGS), presented in June 2016 European External Action
Service (EEAS 2016), reveals a strengthened centrality of Brussels-based
bodies, particularly the office of the EU High Representative/Vice-
president of the European Commission (HR/VP) and the EEAS dur-
ing the inception, drafting, output and implementation phases of this
document.
In order to assess the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty
in the field of external action, the policy-making process of the EUGS is
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 3

compared to the one of the European Security Strategy (ESS), adopted

in 2003, before the Lisbon era. This comparative analysis enables the
assessment of the empowered role of Brussels-based institutions when
devising a new strategy for the whole of the Union. It will be argued that
the increased leadership and initiative capacities of the HR/VP and the
EEAS are key to understand the turning point that the Lisbon Treaty
represents in the field of external action policy-making.
In addition to the empirical study at the policy level, this book also
has a strong interest in understanding the evolution of current dynamics
of European integration. The academic literature is currently experienc-
ing a revival of studies on the path of European integration, after decades
of scrutiny of particular EU policies. The “pragmatic turn” of the late
1970s led to a progressive shifting from “ontological questions about
the nature of the EU to studying individual institutions and policy areas”
(Bickerton 2012). Studies on the “nature of the beast” were substituted
by specific accounts on particular EU policies, leaving aside rich discus-
sions on the theories of European integration, to the point that “a poli-
cy-making focus [became] a coward’s way out of a theoretical dilemma”
(Webb 1977, in Bickerton 2012).
However, a series of developments have renewed the interest in the-
orising European integration. On the one hand, institutional reform
from Maastricht to Lisbon has witnessed a progressive refinement of the
working methods of EU institutions and member states that requires a
new appraisal on how decisions are made. As this book argues, this is
particular relevant for the international relations of the EU and the shift
from the Maastricht pillar structure (which put foreign policy and exter-
nal relations in different pillars) to the Lisbon’s external action. On the
other hand, the recent crises suffered by the EU have also increased the
interest of EU scholars to “return theories of European integration to
the debate about EU’s future” (Moravcsik 2016).1
As Tortola (2015) argues, “the euro crisis has brought integration
theory back to the top of the scholarly agenda” (see also Fabbrini 2015).
A series of academic works aim today to analyse particular policy devel-
opments, shedding light into recent developments in EU integration and
the crises of the European project. These works range from the study
of the “incomplete nature of European integration” as revealed by the
euro crisis (Jones et al. 2015) to the theoretical debates behind the EU’s
immigration and asylum policies (Andersson 2015), to name just two
areas particularly affected by recent crises.
4 P. MORILLAS

These debates join long-standing discussions regarding the equilib-

rium between member states and supranational institutions in -but not
limited to- the policy-making dynamics of foreign policy and external
action. Over time, the debate has produced concepts such as “Brussels-
based intergovernmentalism” (Allen 1998), “brusselization” (Koops
2011), “rationalised intergovernmentalism” (Wessels and Bopp 2008),
“institutionalised intergovernmentalism” (Christiansen 2001), “supra-
national intergovernmentalism” (Howorth 2010) or “intensive trans-
governmentalism” (Wallace 2010), to name a few. This rich terminology
derives from the fact that the Treaties have always preserved the inter-
governmental nature of the CFSP but that policy practices have gained,
over time, some supranational flavour, particularly since the Lisbon
Treaty. These discussions have anything but reached an agreement, nei-
ther in academic nor policy circles, so there is still ample room for discus-
sion, as this book argues.
More recently, the interest to go back to the foundational debates
has been particularly prominent in the intergovernmentalist school of
thought. New intergovernmentalism (departing from Bickerton et al.
2015a) is currently building a theoretical architecture on which several
EU policies can be tested. It assumes that, since the Maastricht Treaty,
the EU is dominated by an “integration paradox”, whereby there is a
“tendency towards European integration without supranationalism”
(Bickerton et al. 2015b). Traditional supranational institutions are not
given additional powers and any effort to advance in European integra-
tion follows the lead of member states.
As a consequence, the European Council has become the “catalyst
of integration” (Fabbrini and Puetter 2016: 634), with the Council act-
ing as the main body for coordinating policies (Puetter 2014: Ch. 4).
New intergovernmentalism also understands that de novo bodies such
as the EEAS are the vehicle for coordinating the activities and resources
of member states, but not policy initiators (Puetter 2014: Ch. 1). The
dynamics of new intergovernmentalism, which can be seen as the fol-
low-up to the traditional debate between intergovernmentalism and
supranationalism as the two main modes of EU policy-making, are pres-
ent in all phases of the policy cycle (Puetter 2014: Ch. 2).
So far, new intergovernmentalism has mostly been used to study the
dynamics of the Economic and Monetary Union since the Euro cri-
sis and foreign, security and defence policies (Howarth and Quaglia
2015; Glencross 2016; Smith 2015b; Amadio Viceré 2016). But fewer
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 5

efforts have been made to apply new intergovernmentalism in what can

be named “hybrid policy areas” such as external action, which brings
together the intergovernmental policies of the CFSP and the CSDP and
the Commission-led external relations for the purpose of policy coherence.
This book builds on the theoretical debate between intergovernmen-
talism and supranationalism and new intergovernmentalism, contextu-
alising it within recent institutional developments in foreign policy and
external action. In addition to returning to ontological debates about the
nature of European integration, this study pays close attention to inter-
nal dynamics in these policy areas as a way to depict the relationships
between EU institutions and member states, understanding that “pro-
cess is as important as outcome” (Smith 2015a: 300). This is in line with
the studies on the system and practices of external action, which pay
close attention to internal dynamics as a way to calibrate the relationship
between EU institutions and member states (Bickerton 2015). In the
domain of external action, Lequesne (2015: 363) reminds us that “prac-
tice theory” is indeed essential for “capturing the relationship between
the actions (decisions, policies, etc.) and the agents”.
So combining an interest in the dynamics of European integration
and the specific practices therein, this book uses new intergovernmen-
talism in policy areas where it has not been applied thoroughly. Indeed,
if new intergovernmentalism aims to explain the dynamics of European
integration since the Maastricht Treaty, it should be able to provide a
careful diagnosis of the policy-making dynamics in foreign policy and
external action, both prior and after the Lisbon Treaty. At the same time,
it should also serve the purpose of better understanding the traditional
debate between intergovernmental and supranational dynamics in these
policy areas.
A departing premise of this book is that the institutional innova-
tions of the Lisbon Treaty have fundamentally altered the policy-making
dynamics in external action. This has raised fears of the supranational-
isation of a traditionally intergovernmental policy—the EU’s CFSP
(Morillas 2011) and brought back to the centre of institutional debates
on external action the traditional debate between supranationalism and
intergovernmentalism (Keukeleire and MacNaughtan 2008), in line with
the abovementioned return of scholarly discussions on the nature of
European integration.
The empirical analysis of this book builds on these discussions to
assess the policy-making dynamics in foreign policy and external action
6 P. MORILLAS

through the making of EU strategies. EU strategies are understood as “a

policy-making tool which, on the basis of the values and interests of the
EU, outlines the long-term overall policy objectives to be achieved and
the basic categories of instruments to be applied to that end” (Biscop
and Andersson 2008: 3). As a source of policy inspiration, the study of
EU strategies serves the double purpose of shedding light into the pol-
icy-making dynamics of particular policies (foreign policy in the case of
the ESS and external action in the case of the EUGS) and to read these
dynamics against broader debates of European integration such as the
new intergovernmentalism. As it is the case for the lack of use of this
theory in external action, the policy-making of EU strategies is also an
under-developed field of study.2
The study of the policy-making process of EU strategies is divided
into 4 different phases, all of them paying close attention to the inter-in-
stitutional dynamics and the relationship between member states and
Brussels-based institutions therein. These phases are agenda-setting,
where the inception of a policy takes place, policy formulation, policy
output and implementation. Particular attention is paid, mostly in the
case of the EUGS, to this last phase, where several advances have been
made in the field of security and defence policies and resilience build-
ing. Specific follow-up in the form of a roadmap for implementing the
EUGS has tamed a traditional criticism on foreign policy strategies,
which accuses them of lacking practical impact. The implementation of
the EUGS has also provided further evidence on the capacity of strate-
gies to act as policy inspiration tools.
To sum up, this book addresses two specific gaps in the literature on
EU integration dynamics and current policy-making practices. On the
one hand, it contributes to the discussions on the intergovernmental-su-
pranational debate in EU foreign policy and external action and fills a
gap in the existing literature on the use of new intergovernmentalism in
the field of external action. On the other, the empirical interest of this
book is based on the analysis of the policy-making processes of the ESS
and the EUGS, considering both documents as milestones for the strate-
gic thinking of the EU.
With the aim to assess the policy-making process of the two exist-
ing strategic documents of the EU (the ESS and the EUGS) in light of
the emergence of new intergovernmentalism and its contextualisation
into the institutional debates in foreign policy and external action, this
book departs from a set of assumptions. First, it understands that, as a
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 7

theory of EU integration and a continuation of the intergovernmen-

tal-supranational debate, new intergovernmentalism should be a relevant
analytical tool for both the CFSP and external action. Since new inter-
governmentalism aims to understand the European integration dynamics
since Maastricht, it should not only apply to policy areas that are prone
to intergovernmental practices but to the policy-making dynamics of all
areas of EU activity.
Second, the emergence of external action has significantly transformed
the policy-making dynamics when compared to the CFSP. This is due
to the fact that external action brings together the previous intergov-
ernmental and supranational processes of the CFSP and external rela-
tions under a single Title V of the Treaty on European Union (TEU),
although respecting the intergovernmental provisions of the CFSP.
The set-up of the EU’s external action should be considered as the
major effort in the Treaties to bring about horizontal and institutional
coherence.
Finally, the policy-making processes of the CFSP and external action
can be assessed through the making of the ESS and the EUGS, which
were drafted under two different Treaty configurations: the Nice Treaty
(which maintained the pillar structure of Maastricht) and the Lisbon
Treaty (which set up the EU’s external action). As such, the poli-
cy-making processes of EU strategies provide relevant empirical evi-
dence of the inter-institutional dynamics in CFSP and external action.
This, in turn, facilitates the discussion of the premises of new inter-
governmentalism, taking into account the policy-making dynamics of
strategy-making.
When read together, these assumptions put forward the idea that the
drafting processes of the ESS and the EUGS reveal an increased role of
Brussels-based institutions, even more so after the Lisbon Treaty and
the creation of the position of the HR/VP and the EEAS. This trend
disputes some of the central premises of new intergovernmentalism,
particularly the increasing influence of member states, the European
Council and the Council and the secondary role of de novo bodies such
as the EEAS in EU policy-making (Puetter 2014). By doing so, this
book complements the literature on the autonomy of the HR/VP and
the EEAS, both regarding their capacity to lead and shape the agenda
(Vanhoonacker and Pomorska 2013) and to distance themselves from
the Commission (Furness 2013) and the member states (Henökl and
Trondal 2015; Balfour and Raik 2013).
8 P. MORILLAS

The shift from traditional Council-based policies (such as foreign

policy) to hybrid policy areas where EU institutions play a decisive role
(i.e. external action) is considered a significant development in European
integration, not sufficiently assessed in the new intergovernmentalism
literature. The making of the ESS and the EUGS, in turn, will provide
relevant empirical evidence of these changing dynamics. Hence, new
intergovernmentalism will be assumed to necessitate additional empiri-
cal evidence (as presented in this book) if it wants to fully capture the
policy-making and institutional processes of hybrid areas of activity, in
line with the works of Carta (2012), Balfour et al. (2015) or Spence and
Bátora (2015), who all share the role of post-Lisbon diplomatic struc-
tures in fostering innovation and policy entrepreneurship.

1.2  Research Objectives and Methodology

This book goes beyond the state of the art in three distinctive ways.
First, it contributes to analytically improve new intergovernmentalism by
applying it to an underdeveloped field of study. In EU foreign policy,
new intergovernmentalism has been applied to CFSP and CSDP, but has
not been extensively used in the broader external action after the Lisbon
Treaty. By bringing new intergovernmentalism to the study of external
action, this study embodies a “theory improvement” exercise (King et al.
1994: 19), thus filling an analytical gap in the literature.3
In addition, this exercise sheds light into the traditional debate
between intergovernmentalism and supranationalism in EU external
action, thanks to relevant evidence provided on the interactions between
member states and EU institutions, both before and after the Lisbon
Treaty. The study of the ESS and the EUGS unveils the institutional
dynamics in CFSP and external action policy-making and, in so doing,
contributes to further elaborate on the intergovernmental-supranational
debate in the framework of the current European integration literature.
Second, this book also fills an empirical gap in the literature by ana-
lysing the policy-making processes of EU strategies. As presented in
Chapter 3, EU strategies have often been studied as a portrait of the stra-
tegic culture of the EU or as impact assessment documents, analysing
the objectives of the Union at the global stage and the means at its dis-
posal. The study of strategies as a tool to inspire policies is a third and
less developed approach, as also are the policy-making processes of these
documents.
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 9

This book considers that the policy-making processes of EU strate-

gies deserve particular attention, as they unveil the institutional dynamics
in EU foreign policy and external action. This premise is also present in
the minds of policy-makers and scholars alike. While HR/VP Federica
Mogherini (2015: 6) has noted that “the process of reflection by a wide
range of actors [on the EUGS] is as important as the end product of the
exercise itself”, Simon Duke affirms that “in strategic terms the journey
is almost as important as the destination” (Duke 2017: 73).
Hence, the institutional context in which strategies are drafted tells a
lot about the rapport de forces between member states and institutions,
and provides a valid empirical evidence for the purposes of this research.
The study of the policy-making processes of the ESS and the EUGS thus
helps to contextualise current institutional dynamics into broader debates
of European integration, since both strategies belong to two different
Treaty configurations (the ESS being adopted before the Lisbon Treaty
and the EUGS, after).
Third, this book methodologically contributes to the study of the pol-
icy-making processes in foreign policy and external action. As it will be
developed in the following section, the study undertaken here uses exist-
ing methods in foreign policy analysis and European policy processes to
provide an innovative framework for the analysis of strategy-making. This
framework covers all phases of the process, from agenda-setting to imple-
mentation. The role of the different actors involved in the policy-making
process and their interactions sheds light into the analytical and empirical
debates of this book.

1.2.1   Unpacking Strategy-Making

The research objectives of this book require using a relevant framework
for the analysis of the policy-making processes of EU strategies that is
simultaneously able to accommodate the theoretical premises of new
intergovernmentalism and the intergovernmental-supranational debate.
The following framework for analysis has been adapted from relevant
literature on foreign policy analysis and European policy processes.
Departing from White (2004) and Young (2010), the framework pre-
sented here will be applied to the study of the policy-making process of
the ESS (Chapter 4) and the EUGS (Chapter 5).
Brian White has provided a framework for the study of the EU as
a global actor departing from classical Foreign Policy Analysis tools
10 P. MORILLAS

(White 2004: 45). His framework is relevant not only for the study of
CFSP but also for wider developments in EU external action, in line
with the objectives of this book. White places particular emphasis on
“actor behaviour as a function of the international institutions or other
structures within which actors are located”—instead of focusing on the
impact of the EU in world politics (White 2004: 45–46). His emphasis
on policy-making actors and processes is particularly suited to the pur-
poses of this research, since its aim is to assess the policy-making pro-
cesses and the inter-institutional relations in the making of the EU’s
strategic documents, rather than their specific contents.
White’s starting point are the six standard Foreign Policy Analysis
questions (White 2004: 54):

1. Who makes EU foreign policy (i.e. who are the actors making for-
eign policy)?
2. What is the nature of the European foreign policy process (i.e.
what is the process for making policy)?
3. What issues constitute the European foreign policy agenda?
4. What instruments are deployed by European foreign policy?
5. What is the context within which policy is made?
6. What are the outputs generated by the policy process?

Since the aim of this book is to assess the policy-making processes of EU

strategies, particular attention is put on the first two questions, related
to the actors and policy-making. Less attention is devoted to questions 3
and 4 on the issues and policy instruments, while the context (question
5) is only considered insomuch the ESS and the EUGS belong to dif-
ferent legal frameworks, the Nice and the Lisbon Treaties, respectively.
Finally, the outputs generated (question 6) are not understood as the
contents of the ESS and EUGS but rather as the form of their adoption
and their implementation.
The particular emphasis of this book on the policy-making processes
of the ESS and the EUGS also requires slightly refining the framework
provided by White (2004). In this sense, White’s analysis of the pro-
cesses (question 2 above) requires some unpacking, and this is to be done
through the toolbox provided by Young (2010), who applies the analy-
sis of policy-making to European integration at large. Young’s aim is to
assess the role of the different EU institutions and member states in the
EU policy cycle, taking into account their different weight and role in
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 11

various EU policies. His departing premise is that “policy makes politics”

(Young 2010: 50), i.e. that the policy-making processes tell a lot about
the political dynamics that characterise the EU system. This book uses
Young’s analysis of the European policy process in different phases, which
include agenda-setting, policy formulation, policy output and implemen-
tation, leaving aside the final evaluation phase (Young 2010: 46)4:

1. Agenda-setting is the phase dedicated to “deciding what to decide

(…), a crucial part of the policy-making process and one that often
takes place in a context where there is a great deal of uncertainty”
(Young 2010: 52). It is related to policy initiative and reveals the
“policy framing”—i.e. the way that actors push and present a pol-
icy in a way that resonates politically (Young 2010: 52).
2. The policy formulation phase is where the drafting of the pol-
icy takes place. This phase involves a series of actors who interact
at an early stage of the policy-making and can include epistemic
communities as “policy networks”. These are defined as “sets of
formal institutional and informal linkages between governmental
and other actors structured around shared if endlessly negotiated
beliefs and interests in public policy-making and implementation”
(Rhodes 2006: 426).
3. The policy output phase is characterised by discussions on “choos-
ing what (not) to do” (Young 2010: 55), as well as on the kind of
document resulting from the policy-making process. In the analysis
of EU strategies, particular attention is placed on the discussions in
the different institutions with responsibilities in external action.
4. The implementation phase usually emphasises the way EU regu-
lations are put into practice (transposed to national legislation);
how do EU policies transform internal policies in EU member
states; and the level of compliance of EU regulations (Young 2010:
61–63). However, for the purpose of this research, the implemen-
tation phase is understood as the impact that the EU strategic doc-
uments have in foreign policy and external action implementation
initiatives, and not necessarily the legislative acts that follow.

The use of White and Young’s frameworks will be applied to depict the
policy-making processes of the ESS and the EUGS in order to produce
empirical evidence on the current policy-making processes in foreign pol-
icy (in the case of the ESS) and external action (in the EUGS).
12 P. MORILLAS

1.2.2  Methodology
This research uses diverse and well-established methodological tools,
including process tracing, case studies and qualitative semi-structured
interviews. These methodological choices have been made in order to
capture the policy-making practices of foreign policy and external action,
which are often characterised by the opaque procedures of the diplo-
matic negotiations in the Council, behind closed doors. The interviews
with the actors involved in the policy-making processes of the ESS and
the EUGS are thus the best way to provide clarity onto the practices of
EU strategy-making, as well as to contextualise theoretical debates on
new intergovernmentalism into the institutional debates brought about
by external action and when compared to the CFSP.

1.2.2.1 Process Tracing
Collier defines process tracing as “the systematic examination of diag-
nostic evidence selected and analysed in light of research questions and
hypotheses posed by the investigator. [It] can contribute decisively both
to describing political and social phenomena” (Collier 2011: 823).
Since the focus of this book is the study of the policy-making processes
of EU strategies, process tracing appears as the most relevant method
to assess the policy formulation process. As noted by Van Evera, “in
process tracing, the investigator explores the chain of events or the
decision-making process” (Van Evera 1997: 64), while George and
McKeown (1985: 35) observe that this method consists in the tracing
of “the decision process by which various initial conditions are trans-
lated into outcomes”.
The focus on policy-making requires the use of process tracing tools
in all stages of the policy formulation process. For each step of strate-
gy-making, the research will uncover the factors determining the deci-
sion-making process and the policy outputs, as well as the role of the
different actors and the relations between them. Process tracing will be
applied to all the phases of policy-making, as presented above.
The developments during the decision-making process are considered
as explanatory factors of the policy output, in this case the ESS and the
EUGS. Process tracing for this research is mostly based on qualitative
semi-structured interviews (more on this method below), although the
empirical material gathered in interviews has also been triangulated with
documentary analysis of primary sources and secondary literature.
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 13

1.2.2.2 The ESS and the EUGS as Case Studies

Research for this book is also based on case studies. Case studies allow
researchers to get a “reasonably good knowledge of nearly all factors
influencing a political decision” (Dür 2008: 563). In this research, case
studies serve the purpose of understanding the policy-making processes
that lie behind EU strategies, with the aim to understand CFSP and
external action policy-making dynamics and to shed light on the main
tenets of new intergovernmentalism. Since new intergovernmentalism
has not been applied yet to this field, the selection of these cases also
fulfils Van Evera’s criteria to select “cases that are poorly explained by
existing theories” (Van Evera 1997: 86).
The case studies of this research have been selected according to the
following criteria. First, their topicality. Both the ESS and the EUGS
can be considered the most relevant efforts of the EU so far to think
strategically (Biscop 2005, 2015). In addition, they provide the policy
framework and strategic guidelines for further foreign policy and external
action developments, so their policy-making reveals the policy-making
processes of these areas. EU strategies can thus be considered as useful
documents to assess theoretical developments on European integration
such as new intergovernmentalism.
While the ESS is considered a relevant document embodying the EU’s
foreign policy strategy, the EUGS is understood as the first document
specifying the objectives of external action in the post-Lisbon era. The
EUGS is also considered as a representative case study to test the insti-
tutional dynamics and policy-making processes in areas where the EEAS
and the office of the HR/VP have exercised a decisive leadership. In
addition, the ESS and the EUGS belong to different institutional frame-
works, which increases their comparability. While the ESS belongs to the
Maastricht’s “pillar era” and was adopted in the framework of the CFSP,
the EUGS has been produced in the Lisbon era, and thus reflects the
policy innovations put forward by external action.
The policy-making processes of both the ESS and the EUGS provide
relevant empirical evidence for the purposes of this research and, as the
interviews with officials demonstrated, can be considered as relevant
frameworks to assess the institutional dynamics of the CFSP and exter-
nal action. Indeed, the study of the policy-making process of the ESS
and the EUGS reveals different policy-making dynamics and institutional
equilibriums, given the different Treaty configurations in which they
were produced.
14 P. MORILLAS

Having these two cases as a reference of different Treaty con-

figurations has also led the author to discard the Report on the
Implementation of the European Security Strategy (RIESS) of 2008
(European Council 2008) as a specific case study. As its title reveals,
this document should not be considered as a strategy per se but a pro-
gress report of the implementation of the ESS, which by 2008 was still
the main document of the EU’s foreign policy strategy. The fact that
the RIESS has been considered as a merely “revised security strategy”
(Berindan 2013: 403)5 and the fact that it belongs to the same Treaty
configuration as the ESS (so previous to the Lisbon Treaty) have been
considered good enough reasons to discard it as a specific case study for
this book.
In addition to these considerations, which will be further elaborated
in Chapter 3, EU strategies have also emerged as a relevant object of
study in the fields of EU foreign policy and external action. Special issues
in academic journals and monographs have been devoted to them (see,
for instance, Contemporary Security Policy 2016; The International
Spectator 2016 and EU Institute for Security Studies 2016, for the
EUGS, and Biscop 2005; Biscop and Andersson 2008 for the ESS).
However, as it has been noted above, the literature on EU strategies has
so far focused more on their contents rather than their policy-making
processes.
To cover this empirical gap in the literature, a decision on the time-
frame of the research has been made. While the case study of the ESS
enables a full analysis on the overall policy-making process (from its
inception to its implementation), the case of the EUGS is different. At
the moment of writing, the implementation of the EUGS was still ongo-
ing. The implementation priorities endorsed by the Council signalled
the following five priorities for “concrete policy initiatives and action”:
“strengthening security and defence; investing in the resilience of states
and societies to our East and South; developing an integrated approach
to conflicts and crises; promoting and supporting cooperative regional
orders; and reinforcing a global governance based on international law,
including the principles of the United Nations Charter, and the Helsinki
Final Act” (Council of the EU 2016a).
At the time of writing, implementation efforts were channelled
through the Implementation Plan on Security and Defence (Council of
the European Union 2016b) and the Joint Communication on resil-
ience (European Commission and HR of the Union for Foreign Affairs
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 15

and Security Policy 2017). With the implementation of the EUGS in

these and other policy areas being a “moving target”, this book covers
developments until the first year of implementation of the EUGS, book-
marked by the publication of the first EEAS report on the implementa-
tion of the EUGS in June 2017 (EEAS 2017).6

1.2.2.3 Gaining Insights on Foreign and External Action Policy-Making

For a better understanding of the policy-making processes in the field of
foreign policy and external action, a series of qualitative semi-structured
expert interviews were carried out. As a research method, qualitative,
semi-structured interviews provide relevant insights into policy-making,
depicting the inter-institutional relations that influence the outcome of
negotiations.7 A total of 39 interviews were carried out with officials
from the EEAS, the European Commission, the Council, the European
Council and EU Member States, both in Brussels and in national capi-
tals. Interviewees were selected on the basis of their position in the EU
institutional structure and their field of expertise. Their insights provided
detailed empirical evidence on the policy-making processes and the EU’s
institutional dynamics during all phases of strategy-making, both for the
ESS and the EUGS.8
Most interviews were conducted in person at the premises of EU
institutions, foreign ministries or at the margins of international confer-
ences. All interviews were conducted under the condition of anonymity
in order to allow officials to speak freely. The contents of the interviews
were codified in a way that the data cannot be attributable: each inter-
view was given a number and a list of interviews is available as an annex
to this book. The research strategy during the interviews was based on
semi-structured questionnaires -following all phases of strategy-making-
and interviewees were interrupted as little as possible to let them speak
freely and openly about their views of the policy-making process. Overall,
questions focused on the role of member states and EU institutions in all
phases of the policy cycle, the relations between the different actors, their
initiative and position during the policy-making process and their evalua-
tion of the policy-making process.
The information gathered in the interviews was also triangulated with
secondary sources (academic and think tank literature on EU strategies,
duly referenced in this work) as well as with primary sources, including
official documents of EU institutions such as Council Conclusions and
other Council-related documents, EEAS documents, speeches of the
16 P. MORILLAS

HR/VP and, in one case, a non-paper facilitated by one of the national

diplomats interviewed, treated only for personal use and under the con-
dition of non-disclosure.
Finally, the research of this book was also partly based on direct obser-
vation of decision-making processes in CFSP and external action, thanks
to the author’s professional experience in the Spanish Representation to
the EU and the Council of the EU (2009–2010). As Deputy Nicolaidis
and coordinator of the Political and Security Committee (PSC) during
the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU (January-June 2010),
I obtained first-hand experience on the working methods in the Council
and the inter-institutional relations in external action. Most of the research
undertaken since then and publications such as Morillas (2011, 2014)
reflect this author’s experience in the Brussels machinery and have ena-
bled me to build an extensive network of contacts of particular use for the
empirical part of this work and the interviews conducted.

1.3  Structure of the Book

This book is divided into two main blocks, in addition to an introduc-
tion and a concluding chapter with a reflection on the research results.
The main object of the book are the policy-making process of the ESS
and the EUGS, put into the context of the policy-making dynamics of
EU foreign policy and external action, respectively, and read through
the premises of new intergovernmentalism. In other words, the book
uses EU strategies as a tool to assess foreign and external action policy-
making dynamics against broader debates in European integration.
Chapter 2 provides the analytical framework of the book and builds
on two sets of literature. On the one hand, it analyses the often-assumed
predominance of intergovernmentalism in current integration dynamics
by reviewing the long lasting debate between intergovernmentalism and
supranationalism and the revival of this debate in the form of the new
intergovernmentalism and its critiques. The analytical debate presented
here serves the purpose of informing the rest of the book from an analyt-
ical perspective, particularly when assessing the policy-making dynamics
of the ESS and the EUGS in light of the new intergovernmentalism.
This debate is then put into the context of the shifting policy-making
dynamics from foreign policy to external action as a way to understand
how current EU’s international relations nuance the prominently inter-
governmental features in this area of EU integration. To do so, the
 1 INTRODUCTION: STRATEGY-MAKING IN THE ERA … 17

chapter reviews the institutional context in which the ESS was adopted
(a prominently intergovernmental policy such as the CFSP) and the one
of the EUGS (under Lisbon’s External Action and where the new inter-
governmentalism fails to fully grasp the inter-institutional dynamics gen-
erated by the set-up of the HR/VP’s position and the EEAS).
Here, an in-depth analysis of the policy-making processes in EU for-
eign policy and external action is provided as a background to the strat-
egies analysed in this book, paying particular attention to the discussions
on policy coherence and the autonomy of Lisbon’s institutional inno-
vations, in particular the EEAS. This includes a revision of the relevant
literature on Brussels-led policy-entrepreneurship in the field of external
action.
Chapter 3 kick-starts the empirical dimension of the book. It starts
with the analysis of the debates regarding the capacity of the EU to
act strategically and locates EU strategies in the framework of external
action, reviewing the different types of strategies that the EU has pub-
lished so far. The chapter then analyses the purpose of strategies, based
on a three-fold categorisation. First, EU strategies are considered to
embody the EU’s strategic culture, thus acting as a soul-searching exer-
cise to define the EU’s position in global affairs. Second, EU strategies
can be analysed under a “means and ends” approach, which unpacks the
instruments and objectives of EU foreign policy in the form of a “grand
strategy”.
Third, and most relevant for the contents of the book, EU strategies
can be studied as a framework for policy-making, acting as documents
for policy-inspiration in the field of foreign policy and external action.
This chapter provides evidence on the relevance of strategies as case
studies, since they can be considered as documents from which specific
implementation policies and initiatives emanate. In addition, this chap-
ter shows how the processes of strategy-making reveal broader policy-
making dynamics that turn EU strategies into relevant case studies for
the study of institutional debates in foreign policy and external action. As
such, they are also useful tools to assess current debates on EU integra-
tion, including new intergovernmentalism.
Chapters 4 and 5 go deeper into the study of the policy-making pro-
cesses of the ESS and the EUGS, respectively. Both chapters provide an
institutional analysis of the policy-making processes of EU strategies,
which, in turn, inform broader discussions on European integration
dynamics as reflected by the premises of new intergovernmentalism.
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conducted congregation, and hoped that great good would result
from our efforts. This opposition, also, the Lord overruled to increase
our influence, and to give point and publicity to our assaults upon
the kingdom of Satan.
Though disappointed thus, some of the Publicans resolved to have
revenge. On the following Saturday evening, when a large meeting
was being addressed in our Green Street Church, which had to be
entered by a great iron gateway, a spirit merchant ran his van in
front of the gate, so that the people could not leave the Church
without its removal. Hearing this, I sent two of my young men to
draw it aside and clear the way. The Publican, watching near by in
league with two policemen, pounced upon the young men whenever
they seized the shafts, and gave them in charge for removing his
property. On hearing that the young men were being marched to the
Police Office, I ran after them and asked what was their offence?
They replied that they were prisoners for injuring the spirit
merchant’s property; and the officers tartly informed me that if I
further interfered I would be taken too. I replied, that as the young
men only did what was necessary, and at my request, I would go with
them to the Office. The cry now went through the street, that the
Publicans were sending the Missionary and his young men to the
Police Office, and a huge mob rushed together to rescue us; but I
earnestly entreated them not to raise disturbance, but allow us
quietly to pass on. At the Office, it appeared as if the lieutenant on
duty and the men under him were all in sympathy with the
Publicans. He took down in writing all their allegations, but would
not listen to us. At this stage a handsomely dressed and dignified
gentleman came forward and said,—
“What bail is required?”
A few sharp words passed; another, and apparently higher, officer
entered, and took part in the colloquy. I could only hear the
gentleman protest, in authoritative tones, the policemen having been
quietly asked some questions,—
“I know this whole case, I will expose it to the bottom; expect me
here to stand by the Missionary and these young men on Monday
morning.”
Before I could collect my wits to thank him, and before I quite
understood what was going on, he had disappeared; and the superior
officer turned to us and intimated in a very respectful manner that
the charge had been withdrawn, and that I and my friends were at
liberty. I never found out exactly who the gentleman was that
befriended us; but from the manner in which he asserted himself and
was listened to, I saw that he was well known in official quarters.
From that day our work progressed without further open opposition,
and many who had been slaves of intemperance were not only
reformed, but became fervent workers in the Total Abstinence cause.
Though intemperance was the main cause of poverty, suffering,
misery, and vice in that district of Glasgow, I had also considerable
opposition from Romanists and Infidels, many of whom met in
clubs, where they drank together and gloried in their wickedness and
in leading other young men astray. Against these I prepared and
delivered lectures, at the close of which discussion was allowed; but I
fear they did little good. These men embraced the opportunity of
airing their absurdities, or sowing the seeds of corruption in those
whom otherwise they could never have reached, while their own
hearts and minds were fast shut against all conviction or light.
One infidel Lecturer in the district became very ill. His wife called
me in to visit him. I found him possessed of a circulating library of
infidel books, by which he sought to pervert unwary minds. Though
he had talked and lectured much against the Gospel, he did not at all
really understand its message. He had read the Bible, but only to find
food there for ridicule. Now supposed to be dying, he confessed that
his mind was full of terror as to the Future. After several visits and
frequent conversations and prayers, he became genuinely and deeply
interested, drank in God’s message of salvation, and cried aloud with
many tears for pardon and peace. He bitterly lamented the evil he
had done, and called in all the infidel literature that he had in
circulation, with the purpose of destroying it. He began to speak
solemnly to any of his old companions that came to see him, telling
them what he had found in the Lord Jesus. At his request I bought
and brought to him a Bible, which he received with great joy, saying,
“This is the book for me now;” and adding, “Since you were here last,
I gathered together all my infidel books; my wife locked the door, till
she and my daughter tore them to pieces, and I struck the light that
reduced the pile to ashes.”
 As long as he lived, this man was unwearied and unflinching in
testifying, to all that crossed his path, how much Jesus Christ had
been to his heart and soul; and he died in the possession of a full and
blessed hope.
Another Infidel, whose wife was a Roman Catholic, also became
unwell, and gradually sank under great suffering and agony. His
blasphemies against God were known and shuddered at by all the
neighbours. His wife pled with me to visit him. She refused, at my
suggestion, to call her own priest, so I accompanied her at last. The
man refused to hear one word about spiritual things, and foamed
with rage. He even spat at me, when I mentioned the name of Jesus.
“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for
they are foolishness unto him!” There is a wisdom which is at best
earthly, and at worst “sensual and devilish.” His wife asked me to
take care of the little money they had, as she would not entrust it to
her own priest. I visited the poor man daily, but his enmity to God
and his sufferings together seemed to drive him mad. His yells
gathered crowds on the streets. He tore to pieces his very bed-
clothes, till they had to bind him on the iron bed where he lay,
foaming and blaspheming. Towards the end I pled with him even
then to look to the Lord Jesus, and asked if I might pray with him?
With all his remaining strength, he shouted at me,—
“Pray for me to the devil!”
Reminding him how he had always denied that there was any
devil, I suggested that he must surely believe in one now, else he
would scarcely make such a request, even in mockery. In great rage
he cried,—
“Yes, I believe there is a devil, and a God, and a just God, too; but I
have hated Him in life, and I hate Him in death!”
With these awful words, he wriggled into Eternity; but his
shocking death produced a very serious impression for good,
especially amongst young men, in the district where his character
was known.
How different was the case of that Doctor who also had been an
unbeliever as well as a drunkard! Highly educated, skilful, and gifted
above most in his profession, he was taken into consultation for
specially dangerous cases, whenever they could find him tolerably
sober. After one of his excessive “bouts,” he had a dreadful attack of
delirium tremens. At one time, wife and watchers had a fierce
struggle to dash from his lips a draught of prussic acid; at another,
they detected the silver-hafted lancet concealed in the band of his
shirt, as he lay down, to bleed himself to death. His aunt came and
pled with me to visit him. My heart bled for his poor young wife and
two beautiful little children. Visiting him twice daily, and sometimes
even more frequently, I found the way somehow into his heart, and
he would do almost anything for me and longed for my visits. When
again the fit of self-destruction seized him, they sent for me; he held
out his hand eagerly, and grasping mine, said,—
“Put all these people out of the room, remain you with me; I will be
quiet, I will do everything you ask!”
I got them all to leave, but whispered to one in passing to “keep
near the door.”
Alone I sat beside him, my hand in his, and kept up a quiet
conversation for several hours. After we had talked of everything that
I could think of, and it was now far into the morning, I said,—
“If you had a Bible here, we might read a chapter, verse about.”
He said dreamily, “There was once a Bible above yon press; if you
can get up to it, you might find it there yet.”
Getting it, dusting it, and laying it on a small table which I drew
near to the sofa on which we sat, we read there and then a chapter
together. After this, I said, “Now, shall we pray?”
He replied heartily, “Yes.”
I having removed the little table, we kneeled down together at the
sofa; and after a solemn pause, I whispered, “You pray first.”
He replied, “I curse, I cannot pray; would you have me curse God
to His face?”
I answered, “You promised to do all that I asked; you must pray, or
try to pray, and let me hear that you cannot.”
He said, “I cannot curse God on my knees; let me stand, and I will
curse Him; I cannot pray.”
I gently held him on his knees, saying, “Just try to pray, and let me
hear you cannot.”
 Instantly he cried out, “O Lord, Thou knowest I cannot pray,” and
was going to say something dreadful as he strove to rise up. But I just
took the words he had uttered as if they had been my own, and
continued the prayer, pleading for him and his dear ones as we knelt
there together, till he showed that he was completely subdued and
lying low at the feet of God. On rising from our knees he was
manifestly greatly impressed, and I said,—
“Now, as I must be at College by daybreak and must return to my
lodging for my books and an hour’s rest, will you do one thing more
for me before I go?”
“Yes,” was his reply.
“Then,” said I, “it is long since you had a refreshing sleep; now, will
you lie down, and I will sit by you till you fall asleep?”
He lay down, and was soon fast asleep. After commending him to
the care and blessing of the Lord, I quietly slipped out, and his wife
returned to watch by his side. When I came back later in the day,
after my classes were over, he, on hearing my foot and voice, came
running to meet me, and clasping me in his arms, cried,—
“Thank God, I can pray now! I rose this morning refreshed from
sleep, and prayed with my wife and children for the first time in my
life; and now I shall do so every day, and serve God while I live, who
hath dealt in so great mercy with me!”
After delightful conversation, he promised to go with me to Dr.
Symington’s church on Sabbath Day; there he took sittings beside
me; at next half-yearly communion he and his wife were received
into membership, and their children were baptized; and from that
day till his death he led a devoted and most useful Christian life.
Henceforth, as a medical man he delighted to attend all poor and
destitute cases which we brought under his care; he ministered to
them for Jesus’ sake, and spoke to them of their blessed Saviour.
When he came across cases that were hopeless, he sent for me to visit
them too, being as anxious for their souls as for their bodies. He
died, years after this, of consumption, partly at least the fruit of early
excesses; but he was serenely prepared for death, and happy in the
assured hope of eternal blessedness with Christ. He sleeps in Jesus;
and I do believe that I shall meet him in Glory as a trophy of
redeeming grace and love!
 In my Mission district, I was the witness of many joyful departures
to be with Jesus,—I do not like to name them “deaths” at all. Even
now, at the distance of nearly forty years, many instances, especially
amongst the young men and women who attended my classes, rise
up before my mind. They left us, rejoicing in the bright assurance
that nothing present or to come “could ever separate them or us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Several of them,
by their conversation even on their deathbed, were known to have
done much good. Many examples might be given; but I can find
room for only one. John Sim, a dear little boy, was carried away by
consumption. His childish heart seemed to be filled with joy about
seeing Jesus. His simple prattle, mingled with deep questionings,
arrested not only his young companions, but pierced the hearts of
some careless sinners who heard him, and greatly refreshed the faith
of God’s dear people. It was the very pathos of song incarnated to
hear the weak quaver of his dying voice sing out,—
“I lay my sins on Jesus,
The spotless Lamb of God.”

Shortly before his decease he said to his parents, “I am going soon

to be with Jesus; but I sometimes fear that I may not see you there.”
“Why so, my child?” said his weeping mother.
“Because,” he answered, “if you were set upon going to heaven and
seeing Jesus there, you would pray about it, and sing about it; you
would talk about Jesus to others, and tell them of that happy meeting
with Him in Glory. All this my dear Sabbath school teacher taught
me, and she will meet me there. Now why did not you, my father and
mother, tell me all these things about Jesus, if you are going to meet
Him too?”
Their tears fell fast over their dying child; and he little knew, in his
unthinking eighth year, what a message from God had pierced their
souls through his innocent words. One day an aunt from the country
visited his mother, and their talk had run in channels for which the
child no longer felt any interest. On my sitting down beside him, he
said,—
“Sit you down and talk with me about Jesus; I am tired hearing so
much talk about everything else but Jesus; I am going soon to be
with Him. Oh, do tell me everything you know or have ever heard
about Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God!”
At last the child literally longed to be away, not for rest, or freedom
from pain—for of that he had very little—but, as he himself always
put it, “to see Jesus.” And, after all, that was the wisdom of the heart,
however he learned it. Eternal life, here or hereafter, is just the vision
of Jesus.
Amongst many of the Roman Catholics in my Mission district,
also, I was very kindly received, and allowed even to read the
Scriptures and to pray. At length, however, a young woman who
professed to be converted by my classes and meetings brought things
to a crisis betwixt them and me. She had renounced her former faith,
was living in a Protestant family, and looked to me as her pastor and
teacher. One night, a closed carriage, with two men and women, was
sent from a Nunnery in Clyde Street, to take her and her little sister
with them. She refused, and declined all authority on their part,
declaring that she was now a Protestant by her own free choice.
During this altercation, a message had been sent for me. On arriving,
I found the house filled with a noisy crowd. Before them all, she
appealed to me for protection from these her enemies. The
Romanists, becoming enraged, jostled me into a corner of the room,
and there enclosed me. The two women pulled her out of bed by
force, for the girl had been sick, and began to dress her, but she
fainted among their hands.
I called out,—
“Do not murder the poor girl! Get her water, quick, quick!” and
leaving my hat on the table, I rushed through amongst them, as if in
search of water, and they let me pass. Knowing that the house had
only one door, I quickly slipped the key from within, shut and locked
the door outside, and with the key in my hand ran to the Police
Office. Having secured two constables to protect the girl and take the
would-be captors into custody, I returned, opened the door, and
found, alas! that these constables were themselves Roman Catholics,
and at once set about frustrating me and assisting their own friends.
The poor sick girl was supported by the arms into the carriage; the
policemen cleared the way through the crowd; and before I could
force my way through the obstructives in the house, the conveyance
was already starting. I appealed and shouted to the crowds to protect
the girl, and seize and take the whole party to the Police Office. A
gentleman in the crowd took my part, and said to a big Highland
policeman in the street,—
“Mac, I commit that conveyance and party to you on a criminal
charge, before witnesses; you will suffer, if they escape.”
The driver lashing at his horse to get away, Mac drew his baton
and struck, when the driver leapt down to the street on the opposite
side, and threw the reins in the policeman’s face. Thereupon our
stalwart friend at once mounted the box, and drove straight for the
Police Office. On arriving there, we discovered that only the women
were inside with the sick girl—the men having escaped in the scuffle
and the crush. What proved more disappointing was that the
lieutenant on duty happened to be a Papist, who, after hearing our
statement and conferring with the parties in the conveyance,
returned, and said,—
“Her friends are taking her to a comfortable home; you have no
right to interfere, and I have let them go.” He further refused to hear
the grounds of our complaint, and ordered the police to clear the
Office.
Next morning, a false and foolish account of the whole affair
appeared in the Newspapers, condemnatory of the Mission and of
myself; a meeting of the directors was summoned, and the
Superintendent came to my lodging to take me before them. Having
heard all, and questioned and cross-questioned me, they resolved to
prosecute the abductors of the girl. The Nunnery authorities
confessed that the little sister was with them, but denied that she had
been taken in there, or that they knew anything of her case. Though
the girl was sought for carefully by the Police, and by all the members
of my class, for nearly a fortnight, no trace of her or of the coachman
or of any of the parties could be discovered; till one day from a cellar,
through a grated window, she called to one of my class girls passing
by, and begged her to run and let me know that she was confined
there. At once, the directors of the City Mission were informed by
me, and Police were sent to rescue her; but on examining that house
they found that she had been again removed. The occupiers denied
all knowledge of where she had gone, or who had taken her away
from their lodging. All other efforts failed to find her, till she was left
at the Poor House door, far gone in dropsy, and soon after died in
that last refuge of the destitute and forsaken.
Anonymous letters were now sent, threatening my life; and I was
publicly cursed from the altar by the priests in Abercromby Street
Chapel. The directors of the Mission, fearing violence, advised me to
leave Glasgow for a short holiday, and even offered to arrange for my
being taken for work in Edinburgh for a year, that the fanatical
passions of the Irish Papists might have time to subside. But I
refused to leave my work. I went on conducting it all as in the past.
The worst thing that happened was, that on rushing one day past a
row of houses occupied exclusively by Papists, a stone thrown from
one of them cut me severely above the eye, and I fell stunned and
bleeding. When I recovered and scrambled to my feet, no person of
course that could be suspected was to be seen! The doctor having
dressed the wound, it rapidly healed, and after a short confinement I
resumed my work and my studies without any further serious
annoyance. Attempts were made more than once, in these Papist
closes, and I believe by the Papists themselves, to pour pails of
boiling water on my head, over windows and down dark stairs, but in
every case I marvellously escaped; and as I would not turn coward,
their malice tired itself out, and they ultimately left me entirely at
peace. Is not this a feature of the lower Irish, and especially Popish
population? Let them see that bullying makes you afraid, and they
will brutally and cruelly misuse you; but defy them fearlessly, or take
them by the nose, and they will crouch like whelps beneath your feet.
Is there anything in their Religion that accounts for this? Is it not a
system of alternating tyranny on the one part, and terror, abject
terror, on the other?
About this same time there was an election of elders for Dr.
Symington’s congregation, and I was by an almost unanimous vote
chosen for that office. For years now I had been attached to them as
City Missionary for their district, and many friends urged me to
accept the eldership, as likely to increase my usefulness, and give me
varied experience for my future work. My dear father, also, himself
an elder in the congregation at Dumfries, advised me similarly; and
though very young, comparatively, for such a post, I did accept the
office, and continued to act as an elder and member of Dr.
Symington’s kirk session, till by-and-by I was ordained as a
Missionary to the New Hebrides, where the great lot of my life had
been cast by the Lord, as yet unknown to me.
All through my City Mission period, I was painfully carrying on my
studies, first at the University of Glasgow, and thereafter at the
Reformed Presbyterian Divinity Hall; and also medical classes at the
Andersonian College. With the exception of one session, when failure
of health broke me down, I struggled patiently on through ten years.
The work was hard and most exacting; and if I never attained the
scholarship for which I thirsted—being but poorly grounded in my
younger days—I yet had much of the blessed Master’s presence in all
my efforts, which many better scholars sorely lacked; and I was
sustained by the lofty aim which burned all these years bright within
my soul, namely,—to be qualified as a preacher of the Gospel of
Christ, to be owned and used by Him for the salvation of perishing
men.
 CHAPTER IV.
FOREIGN MISSION CLAIMS.

The Wail of the Heathen.—A Missionary Wanted.—Two Souls on

the Altar.—Lions in the Path.—The Old Folks at Home.—
Successors in Green Street Mission.—Old Green Street Hands.
—A Father in God.

Happy in my work as I felt, and successful by the blessing of God, yet

I continually heard, and chiefly during my last years in the Divinity
Hall, the wail of the perishing Heathen in the South Seas; and I saw
that few were caring for them, while I well knew that many would be
ready to take up my work in Calton, and carry it forward perhaps
with more efficiency than myself. Without revealing the state of my
mind to any person, this was the supreme subject of my daily
meditation and prayer; and this also led me to enter upon those
medical studies, in which I purposed taking the full course; but at the
close of my third year, an incident occurred, which led me at once to
offer myself for the Foreign Mission field.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in which I had
been brought up, had been advertising for another Missionary to join
the Rev. John Inglis in his grand work in the New Hebrides. Dr.
Bates, the excellent convener of the Heathen Missions Committee,
was deeply grieved, because for two years their appeal had failed. At
length, the Synod, after much prayer and consultation, felt the claims
of the Heathen so urgently pressed upon them by the Lord’s repeated
calls, that they resolved to cast lots, to discover whether God would
thus select any Minister to be relieved from his home-charge, and
designated as a Missionary to the South Seas. Each member of
Synod, as I was informed, agreed to hand in, after solemn appeal to
God, the names of the three best qualified in his esteem for such a
work, and he who had the clear majority was to be loosed from his
congregation, and to proceed to the Mission field—or the first and
second highest, if two could be secured. Hearing this debate, and
feeling an intense interest in these most unusual proceedings, I
remember yet the hushed solemnity of the prayer before the names
were handed in. I remember the strained silence that held the
Assembly while the scrutinizers retired to examine the papers; and I
remember how tears blinded my eyes when they returned to
announce that the result was so indecisive, that it was clear that the
Lord had not in that way provided a Missionary. The cause was once
again solemnly laid before God in prayer, and a cloud of sadness
appeared to fall over all the Synod.
The Lord kept saying within me, “Since none better qualified can
be got, rise and offer yourself!” Almost overpowering was the
impulse to answer aloud, “Here am I, send me.” But I was dreadfully
afraid of mistaking my own emotions for the will of God. So I
resolved to make it a subject of close deliberation and prayer for a
few days longer, and to look at the proposal from every possible
aspect. Besides, I was keenly solicitous about the effect upon the
hundreds of young people and others, now attached to all my classes
and meetings; and yet I felt a growing assurance that this was the call
of God to His servant, and that He who was willing to employ me in
the work abroad, was both able and willing to provide for the on-
carrying of my work at home. The wail and the claims of the Heathen
were constantly sounding in my ears. I saw them perishing for lack of
the knowledge of the true God and His Son Jesus, while my Green
Street people had the open Bible, and all the means of grace within
easy reach, which, if they rejected, they did so wilfully, and at their
own peril. None seemed prepared for the Heathen field; many were
capable and ready for the Calton service. My medical studies, as well
as my literary and divinity training, had specially qualified me in
some ways for the Foreign field, and from every aspect at which I
could look the whole facts in the face, the voice within me sounded
like a voice from God.
It was under good Dr. Bates of West Campbell Street that I had
begun my career in Glasgow—receiving £25 per annum for district
visitation in connection with his congregation, along with instruction
under Mr. Hislop and his staff in the Free Church Normal Seminary
—and oh, how Dr. Bates did rejoice, and even weep for joy, when I
called on him, and offered myself for the New Hebrides Mission! I
returned to my lodging with a lighter heart than I had for some time
enjoyed, feeling that nothing so clears the vision, and lifts up the life,
as a decision to move forward in what you know to be entirely the
will of the Lord. I said to my fellow-student, who had chummed with
me all through our course at college,—
“I have been away signing my banishment” (a rather trifling way of
talk for such an occasion). “I have offered myself as a Missionary for
the New Hebrides.”
After a long and silent meditation, in which he seemed lost in far-
wandering thoughts, his answer was,—
“If they will accept of me, I also am resolved to go!”
I said, “Will you write the convener to that effect, or let me do so?”
He replied, “You may.”
A few minutes later his letter of offer was in the post office. Next
morning, Dr. Bates called upon us early, and after a long
conversation, commended us and our future work to the Lord God in
fervent prayer.
My fellow-student, Mr. Joseph Copeland, had also for some time
been a very successful City Missionary in the Camlachie district,
while attending along with me at the Divinity Hall. This leading of
God, whereby we both resolved at the same time to give ourselves to
the Foreign Mission field, was wholly unexpected by us, as we had
never once spoken to each other about going abroad. At a meeting of
the Heathen Missions Committee, held immediately thereafter, both
were, after due deliberation, formally accepted, on condition that we
passed successfully the usual examinations required of candidates
for the Ministry. And for the next twelve months we were placed
under the special committee for advice as to medical experience,
acquaintance with the rudiments of trades, and anything else which
might be thought useful to us in the Foreign field.
When it became known that I was preparing to go abroad as
Missionary, nearly all were dead against the proposal, except Dr.
Bates and my fellow-student. My dear father and mother, however,
when I consulted them, characteristically replied, “that they had long
since given me away to the Lord, and in this matter also would leave
me to God’s disposal.” From other quarters we were besieged with
the strongest opposition on all sides. Even Dr. Symington, one of my
professors in divinity, and the beloved Minister in connection with
whose congregation I had wrought so long as a City Missionary, and
in whose kirk session I had for years sat as an elder, repeatedly urged
me to remain at home. He argued, “that Green Street Church was
doubtless the sphere for which God had given me peculiar
qualifications, and in which He had so largely blessed my labours;
that if I left those now attending my classes and meetings, they might
be scattered, and many of them would probably fall away; that I was
leaving certainty for uncertainty—work in which God had made me
greatly useful, for work in which I might fail to be useful, and only
throw away my life amongst Cannibals.”
I replied, “that my mind was finally resolved; that, though I loved
my work and my people, yet I felt that I could leave them to the care
of Jesus, who would soon provide them a better pastor than I; and
that, with regard to my life amongst the Cannibals, as I had only once
to die, I was content to leave the time and place and means in the
hand of God, who had already marvellously preserved me when
visiting cholera patients and the fever-stricken poor; on that score I
had positively no further concern, having left it all absolutely to the
Lord, whom I sought to serve and honour, whether in life or by
death.”
The house connected with my Green Street Church, was now
offered to me for a Manse, and any reasonable salary that I cared to
ask (as against the promised £120 per annum for the far-off and
dangerous New Hebrides), on condition that I would remain at
home. I cannot honestly say that such offers or opposing influences
proved a heavy trial to me; they rather tended to confirm my
determination that the path of duty was to go abroad. Amongst many
who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman,
whose crowning argument always was,—
“The Cannibals! you will be eaten by Cannibals!”
At last I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and
your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by
worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and
honouring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I
am eaten by Cannibals or by worms; and in the Great Day my
resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our
risen Redeemer.”
The old gentleman, raising his hands in a deprecating attitude, left
the room exclaiming,—
“After that I have nothing more to say!”
My dear Green Street people grieved excessively at the thought of
my leaving them, and daily pled with me to remain. Indeed, the
opposition was so strong from nearly all, and many of them warm
Christian friends, that I was sorely tempted to question whether I
was carrying out the Divine will, or only some headstrong wish of my
own. This also caused me much anxiety, and drove me close to God
in prayer. But again every doubt would vanish, when I clearly saw
that all at home had free access to the Bible and the means of grace,
with Gospel light shining all around them, while the poor Heathen
were perishing, without even the chance of knowing all God’s love
and mercy to men. Conscience said louder and clearer every day,
“Leave all these results with Jesus your Lord, who said, ‘Go ye into all
the world, preach the gospel to every creature, and lo! I am with you
alway.’” These words kept ringing in my ears; these were our
marching orders.
Some retorted upon me, “There are Heathen at home; let us seek
and save, first of all, the lost ones perishing at our doors.” This I felt
to be most true, and an appalling fact; but I unfailingly observed that
those who made this retort neglected these home Heathen
themselves; and so the objection, as from them, lost all its power.
They would ungrudgingly spend more on a fashionable party at
dinner or tea, on concert or ball or theatre, or on some ostentatious
display, or worldly and selfish indulgence, ten times more, perhaps
in a single day, than they would give in a year, or in half a lifetime,
for the conversion of the whole Heathen World, either at home or
abroad. Objections from all such people must, of course, always
count for nothing among men to whom spiritual things are realities.
For these people themselves,—I do, and always did, only pity them,
as God’s stewards, making such a miserable use of time and money
entrusted to their care.
On meeting with so many obstructing influences, I again laid the
whole matter before my dear parents, and their reply was to this
effect:—“Heretofore we feared to bias you, but now we must tell you
why we praise God for the decision to which you have been led. Your
father’s heart was set upon being a Minister, but other claims forced
him to give it up. When you were given to them, your father and
mother laid you upon the altar, their first-born, to be consecrated, if
God saw fit, as a Missionary of the Cross; and it has been their
constant prayer that you might be prepared, qualified, and led to this
very decision; and we pray with all our heart that the Lord may
accept your offering, long spare you, and give you many souls from
the Heathen World for your hire.” From that moment, every doubt as
to my path of duty for ever vanished. I saw the hand of God very
visibly, not only preparing me for, but now leading me to, the
Foreign Mission field.
Well did I know that the sympathy and prayers of my dear parents
were warmly with me in all my studies and in all my Mission work;
but for my education they could, of course, give me no money help.
All through, on the contrary, it was my pride and joy to help them,
being the eldest in a family of eleven. First, I assisted them to
purchase the family cow, without whose invaluable aid my ever-
memorable mother never could have reared and fed her numerous
flock; then, I paid for them the house-rent and the cow’s grass on the
Bank Hill, till some of the others grew up and relieved me by paying
these in my stead; and finally, I helped to pay the school-fees, to
provide clothing—in short I gave, and gladly, what could possibly be
saved out of my City Mission salary of £40, ultimately advanced to
£45 per annum. Self-educated thus, and without the help of one
shilling from any other source, readers will easily imagine that I had
many a staggering difficulty to overcome in my long curriculum in
Arts, Divinity, and Medicine; but God so guided me, and blessed all
my little arrangements, that I never incurred one farthing of personal
debt. There was, however, a heavy burden always pressing upon me,
and crushing my spirit from the day I left my home, which had been
thus incurred.
The late owner of the Dalswinton estate allowed, as a prize, the
cottager who had the tidiest house and most beautiful flower-garden
to sit rent free. For several years in succession, my old sea-faring
grandfather won this prize, partly by his own handy skill, partly by
his wife’s joy in flowers. Unfortunately no clearance-receipt had been
asked or given for these rents—the proprietor and his cottars treating
each other as friends rather than as men of business. The new heir,
unexpectedly succeeding, found himself in need of money, and
threatened prosecution for such rents as arrears. The money had to
be borrowed. A money-lending lawyer gave it at usurious interest, on
condition of my father also becoming responsible for interest and
principal. This burden hung like a millstone around my grandfather’s
neck till the day of his death; and it then became suspended round
my father’s neck alone. The lawyer, on hearing of my giving up trade
and entering upon study, threatened to prosecute my father for the
capital, unless my name were given along with his for security. Every
shilling that I or any of us could save, all through these ten years of
my preparatory classes, went to pay off that interest and gradually to
reduce the capital; and this burden we managed, amongst us, to
extinguish just on the eve of my departure for the South Seas.
Indeed, one of the purest joys connected with that time was that I
received my first Foreign Mission salary and outfit money in
advance, and could send home a sum sufficient to wipe out the last
penny of a claim by that money-lender or by any one else against my
beloved parents, in connection with the noble struggle they had
made in rearing so large a family in thorough Scottish independence.
And that joy was hallowed by the knowledge that my other brothers
and sisters were now all willing and able to do what I had been doing
—for we stuck to each other and to the old folks like burs, and had all
things “in common,” as a family in Christ—and I knew that never
again, howsoever long they might be spared through a peaceful
autumn of life, would the dear old father and mother lack any joy or
comfort that the willing hands and loving hearts of all their children
could singly or unitedly provide. For all this I did praise the Lord. It
consoled me, beyond description, in parting from them, probably for
ever in this world at least.
The Directors of Glasgow City Mission along with the Great
Hamilton Street congregation, had made every effort to find a
suitable successor to me in my Green Street work, but in vain.
Despairing of success, as no inexperienced worker could with any
hope undertake it, Rev. Mr. Caie, the superintendent, felt moved to
appeal to my brother Walter,—then in a good business situation in
the city, who had been of late closely associated with me in all my
undertakings,—if he would not come to the rescue, devote himself to
the Mission, and prepare for the Holy Ministry. My brother resigned
a good position and excellent prospects in the business world, set
himself to carry forward the Green Street Mission and did so with
abundant energy and manifest blessing, persevered in his studies,
despite a long-continued illness through injury to his foot, and
became an honoured Minister of the Gospel, in the Reformed
Presbyterian Church first of all, and now in the Free Church of
Scotland, at Chapelton, near Hamilton.
On my brother withdrawing from Green Street, God provided for
the district a devoted young Minister, admirably adapted for the
work, Rev. John Edgar, M.A., who succeeded in drawing together
such a body of people that they hived off and built a new church in
Landressy Street, which is now, by amalgamation, known as the
Barrowfield Free Church of Glasgow. For that fruit too, while giving
all praise to other devoted workers, we bless God as we trace the
history of our Green Street Mission. Let him that soweth and him
that reapeth rejoice unfeignedly together! The spirit of the old Green
Street workers lives on too, as I have already said, in the new
premises erected close thereby; and in none more conspicuously
than in the son of my staunch patron and friend, another Thomas
Binnie, Esq., who in Foundry Boy meetings and otherwise devotes
the consecrated leisure of a busy and prosperous life to the direct
personal service of his Lord and Master. The blessing of Jehovah
God be ever upon that place, and upon all who there seek to win their
fellows to the love and service of Jesus Christ!
When I left Glasgow, many of the young men and women of my
classes would, if it had been possible, have gone with me, to live and
die among the Heathen. Though chiefly working girls and lads in
trades and mills, their deep interest led them to unite their pence
and sixpences and to buy web after web of calico, print, and woollen
stuffs, which they themselves shaped and sewed into dresses for the
women, and kilts and pants for men, on the New Hebrides. This
continued to be repeated year by year, long after I had left them; and
to this day no box from Glasgow goes to the New Hebrides Mission
which does not contain article after article from one or other of the
old Green Street hands. I do certainly anticipate that, when they and
I meet in Glory, those days in which we learned the joy of Christian
service in the Green Street Mission Halls will form no unwelcome
theme of holy and happy converse!
That able and devoted Minister of the Gospel, Dr. Bates, the
Convener of the Heathen Missions, had taken the deepest and most
fatherly interest in all our preparations. But on the morning of our
final examinations he was confined to bed with sickness; yet could
not be content without sending his daughter to wait in an adjoining
room near the Presbytery House, to learn the result, and instantly to
carry him word. When she, hurrying home, informed him that we
both had passed successfully, and that the day of our ordination as
Missionaries to the New Hebrides had been appointed, the apostolic
old man praised God for the glad tidings, and said his work was now
done, and that he could depart in peace,—having seen two devoted
men set apart to preach the Gospel to these dark and bloody Islands
in answer to his prayers and tears for many a day. Thereafter he
rapidly sank, and soon fell asleep in Jesus. He was from the first a
very precious friend to me, one of the ablest Ministers our Church
ever had, by far the warmest advocate of her Foreign Missions, and
altogether a most attractive, white-souled, and noble specimen of an
ambassador for Christ, beseeching men to be reconciled to God.
Stanford’s Geog. Estabt.,
London.