The work in France――Baron Edmond _de_ Rothschild and his activity in the colonization of Palestine――The effects in England――Colonel A. E. W. Goldsmid――Elim _d’_Avigdor. TO come back to France, it is significant that whilst England took the first place in the propaganda of the idea, its practical progress was due to French Jewry, or, to be more precise, to an individual French Jew. The work of the “Lovers of _Zion_” entered upon a new period when Baron Edmond _de_ Rothschild of Paris started his great activity in the colonization of Palestine in 1895‒1896. Baron Edmond _de_ Rothschild is one of the most honoured figures of Jewish contemporary history. Born to an exalted station in life and to a large fortune, he has devoted the best of his life and of his thought neither to pleasure nor to personal advancement, but to the furtherance of the material and moral well-being of the oppressed Jewish people. It is not too much to say that he has acquired a world-wide fame as a philanthropist, and that his name is indissolubly connected with all the greatest achievements of the Jews in Palestine. He is pre-eminently the friend of the persecuted and the outcast, without distinction of nationality or creed, and his generous sympathies and ceaseless efforts on behalf of his brethren entitle him to the foremost rank in the illustrious roll of Jewish leaders. His philanthropic enthusiasm can be traced to his profound Jewish national feeling. Recent improvement in the condition of Jewish life in Palestine is due to many causes and to the efforts of many men, but to none more than to the noble work of Baron Edmond. He was not the originator of the idea of colonizing Palestine, but he carried it further than any of his predecessors or contemporaries, and he is responsible for developments beyond any that they conceived. His activity should serve as the grandest example of what can be accomplished when work is undertaken for the sake of a great ideal and carried out with staunch conviction. The creation of a sound Jewish settlement in Palestine is his vocation and his life-work. Nor is it the least interesting feature in his character, or the least honourable incident of his career, that the idea took hold of him at a time when there was every reason for even a generous man to dissociate himself from such thankless work.