Their difficulties were forcibly brought home to the Jews who lived in the East of London. They had been eye-witnesses themselves, if not of the persecutions, at least of some of their worst consequences. The first movement to remedy this unfortunate state of affairs began in 1885, when a meeting was held for the purpose of founding a society for the promotion of the Jewish National Idea, and the establishment of Jewish Colonies in Palestine. This meeting achieved no practical results at the time; but it gave expression to feelings which were bound ultimately to lead to practical and useful action. Two years later a society was formed in East London under the name of “_Kadima_.” Meetings were held at which papers were regularly read on some Jewish national subject. But the members were much divided as to the best method of realizing their aims. While some wanted the society to be nothing but an educational institution for the refugees who had taken up their abode in England, others desired to extend the sphere of its activity, and to make colonization one of its main objects. The newly awakened national consciousness had not yet gained mastery over the inveterate national apathy, and was still groping in the dark to find a basis for practical operations. The enthusiasm manifested among the Jewish masses, important as it was, could not raise sufficient means, and was unable to influence the upper classes. The old questions arose again: Is Palestine suitable for colonization? What are the conditions of the soil and the climate? How many people could be accommodated there? By what means could a change in the conditions of Palestine be brought about? It is strange how obstinately some Jewish opponents of the colonization of Palestine strained against believing in the future of Palestine. To the past they paid in icy discomfort the tribute of their remembrance, for this past imposes no duties upon those who are already quite detached from it in spirit. But the future! By denying the possibility of a future one beguiles an elastic conscience, which longs to evade the apparent conflict between duty to humanity and national instinct. But it avails little to pay no heed to truth because it is inconvenient, for where historical facts and direct experience point the same way, to deny them is but empty sophistry.