“To afford the Jew an opportunity of returning to Palestine, if he chooses, and of dwelling there in peace and security, will hereafter form one of the brightest gems in the crown of Britain. Cyrus, for permitting the captive Jews to go up to _Jerusalem_, was honoured with an everlasting memorial upon the pages of inspiration. Britain will not miss a recompense of equal worth and honour for an act of the same enlightened benevolence. For this the present time is most happy and opportune――for the stirring and philanthropic portion of the public are alive to the case of the Jews, and would hail with loudest applause that government which would thus lay the top-stone upon all the kind exertions hitherto made in favour of that people.” It is a common notion, particularly among some Jewish opponents of Zionism, to suppose that some non-Jewish supporters of this idea may be jealous of Jewish equality in the countries where they live, and may hope to get rid of the Jews. As a matter of fact, however, the promoters of the idea of Restoration have always been opposed to any sort of persecution or degradation. Here the writer touched upon one of the most important controversial points: the alleged incompatibility of the Restoration of the Jews to Palestine with their rights of citizenship in other countries. This contention has been made use of by some Jewish opponents of modern Zionism. We have dealt with the point in the Introduction, and shall have to return to it again. Here we only call attention to the broad-minded and lofty manner in which this English writer pointed out the fallacy of this supposed contradiction between Palestine and “rights,” which has arisen only through narrowness of judgment and want of logic. It is curious indeed to find that Jewish opponents were always wont to speak on this point in the name of Christians, but in a strain quite opposed to expressed ideas and the attitude of the Christians most competent to decide. The plain fact is, as the writer says, that “the promoters of the idea of Restoration have always been opposed to any sort of persecution and degradation.” This theory of a supposed irreconcilability of Palestine and “rights” is logically fallacious from another standpoint. The defenders of the theory refuse to consider sufficiently the question of the nature of rights and freedom. At times they seem to opine that Jews have to renounce their traditions in order to get “rights”; at other times they appear to emphasize that freedom which is obtainable by means of “rights.” But in reality rights are not necessarily freedom; a man who aspires to culture but is forced to renounce his aspirations is not free. On the other hand, for a group of persons to abandon their traditions is not freedom. Freedom in the positive sense, the only sense which gives it any value, is the privilege of a wide choice, because the privilege of choice is the primary condition of real development and productiveness.