Three Societies for the support of Jewish Colonization in Palestine were founded in London at the beginning of the sixties of the last century. One, managed by Jews and Christians together, was mainly “for promoting Jewish settlements in Palestine” through the encouragement of agricultural pursuits.¹ Another, also under the management of Christians and Jews, comprised several separate undertakings in the neighbourhood of _Jerusalem_. A third was founded by the American Consul in _Jerusalem_, with the idea that the direction should be placed in the hands of the Jews only. Its first efforts were to be centred on _Jerusalem_ and its neighbourhood. ¹ Dr. Abraham Benisch――William Henry Black (1808‒1872), founder of the Palestine Archæological Association (1853) and pastor of the seventh day Baptists――Alfred Hall ――Montague Leverson――Rev. John Mills (1812‒1873)――Hugh Owen――Solomon Sequerra were among its members. Whether it was possible to frame a workable scheme of colonization on an extensive scale, and whether any such scheme could be carried into practice with any chance of success, were questions difficult to answer. It was a fact that beyond the walls of the old (Jewish) _Jerusalem_ there was no safety for life or limb, and still less for property. But, on the other hand, it was known that this evil was not ineradicable, for during the few years when Syria was under the control of Mehemet Ali the energetic government of that Prince effectually curbed the lawlessness of the wandering tribes, and so thoroughly established security that a person might have travelled from one frontier town of Syria to the other with a bag of money in his hands, without fearing any attempt at robbery. Moreover, before the evacuation of Syria by the Egyptian troops, Sir Moses Montefiore had been seriously engaged in the plan of establishing a Jewish centre of settlement in the Holy Land, and had entered into negotiations with Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, when the surrender of Syria to the Porte frustrated his great design. Those who have had the opportunity of referring to the second private journal of Lady Montefiore will find in the Addenda (Appendix lxiv) full particulars of this project. This experienced philanthropist had not therefore considered such a scheme impracticable twenty-three years earlier. The question was: Had circumstances so altered since the accession of the _Sultan_ Abdul Aziz to the throne that any plan of this kind would have as good a chance of success as it had offered under Mehemet Ali? “Difficulties,” said a great statesman, “are made to be overcome”: and after all, why should those presented by such a scheme prove insuperable? The proposition of itself was, unquestionably, worthy of the attention of a generation so enterprising and so eminently practical in its philanthropic exertions as that of the sixties of the last century.