BARON _de_ HIRSCH was not a Zionist, nor do we desire to claim him as a national Jew. Had he been asked whether he recognized the national idea, he would undoubtedly have replied that he was opposed to it. He was not much interested in abstract ideas, and it is questionable whether he could be made to fit in with any cut-and-dried theory at all. Nevertheless, his activities became those of a national Jew when once he was made fully conscious of the Jewish tragedy. Born in Munich, heir to an Austrian title, distinguished for his industrial undertakings in the East, resident in Paris, with powerful connections in England, he devoted himself at last almost entirely to his brethren in Russia. Was the impelling feeling a colourless cosmopolitan humanism? One might have called it so as long as he merely supported education and sent contributions to charities. But one cannot, without doing violence to facts, regard the work of what we have called his fourth period――which was the very climax of his activity――as the mere charitable routine which is characteristic of Jews whose purpose and hope is “assimilation.” Hirsch was more than a Jew of that type. The tendency towards assimilation destroys the Jew, discourages the man, kills his individuality, “and thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,” and the Jew becomes an emulator of what other people do, a slave of other people’s opinions. If a personality like that of Hirsch could develop in such an environment, it was because his inquiring mind, the experience gained in his travels and his absorption during youth of the old traditions of his people carried him far beyond his actual surroundings. It was due to his individual gifts that he took up the great idea of concentration of the persecuted Jewish people by means of colonization. He directed all his energies to the investigation of the best places for colonization, and the result was the formation of an international association, incorporated under English law, and known as the Jewish Colonization Association, whose Memorandum of Association includes the following clauses:―― “To assist and promote the emigration of Jews from any part of Europe or Asia――and principally from countries in which they may for the time being be subjected to any special taxes or political or other disabilities――to any parts of the world, and to form and establish colonies in various parts of North and South America and other countries for agricultural, commercial and other purposes. “To purchase and acquire, by donation or otherwise, from any Governments, States, municipal or local authorities, corporations, firms, or persons any territories, lands, or other property, as concessions, powers and privileges, which may be necessary or convenient for developing the resources of the same and rendering the same available for colonization.