He started his work in France. Different rumours were current at that time (1866) in England about a great Zionist propaganda in France. “A curious and interesting movement has been in progress for a considerable time affecting the state and prospects of the Jewish race in all quarters of the world,” we read in an editorial in _The Morning Herald_, London (6th Feb., 1866). “It is of national rather than of a religious character. As is well known, the generous exertions of Sir Moses Montefiore in Morocco, Persia and elsewhere have greatly tended to ameliorate the conditions of the Jews locally, although they are still in many regions persecuted and oppressed: but the most remarkable fact of all, has been the interview between the French Emperor and the leading members of the community in Paris. The object of this informal proceeding was, on the part of Napoleon III., to ascertain how far there yet lingered in the Jewish mind a belief and desire, that they might become repossessed of their native country; and certainly no idea, since that of the Crusaders, could be more romantic or bold, than one which should promise them through any means the fulfilment of this ancient wish....” The author of this article concludes: “Whatever our creeds, we cannot forget the good words of Bishop Weston¹ when he said that, upon seeing a Jew, his best thoughts were always carried back to the beginning and earliest blessing of the world. Therefore it is with more than a mere antiquarian spirit that we observe with sympathy the refusal of this race to raise, whenever challenged to resume their lost position in the world, the cry _Hierosolyma est perdita...._” This rumour concerning an interview which the French Emperor had granted to the leading members of the community in Paris was undoubtedly due to the propaganda of Henri Dunant, who was a _persona gratissima_ at the French Court. ¹ Stephen Weston (1665‒1742), Bishop of Exeter, 1724. The appeal was afterwards re-echoed in a political paper started in Brussels under the title of _L’Orient_, which devoted much attention to Eastern affairs.