History shows that the Zionist idea and the continual renewal of efforts in this direction have been a tradition with the English people for centuries. English Christians taught the undying principles of Jewish nationality. Zionism was thus permanently connected with England. The Jewish national idea has always particularly appealed to English feeling, has touched the heart of the English nation. The facts and records disprove the absurd yet deeply rooted idea that Zionism is only a vision of sectarians or a hallucination of dreamers. The documents cited in this volume give ample and convincing proof of the high moral dignity and political value of the Zionist cause as championed by prominent English thinkers, men of letters and poets throughout many generations. For nearly three centuries Zionism was a religious as well as a political idea which great Christians and Jews, chiefly in England but to some extent also in France, handed down to posterity. And moreover, all the available evidence points to the fact that whenever the attention of the world has been invited to the question of Palestine and to measures for improving the development of the Near East, English opinion has given the most careful and sympathetic consideration to the Zionist idea. Thus the present Zionist movement is essentially a logical conclusion of all the premises which have been accepted from different points of view, not only by a considerable number of Jewish authorities, but also by public opinion in great civilized countries of Western Europe. Zionists, therefore, hope that English Christians will be worthy heirs and successors to the Earl of Shaftesbury, George Eliot, and many others; English Jews to Sir Moses Montefiore, French Christians to Henri Dunant, and French Jews to Joseph Salvador, Bernard Lazare, and others. One may also hope that as Zionism is not a source of conflicting element but a source of peace and unity, all the nations of the world will be open to conviction and will give strong support to its aims.