LIII.

EARL OF SHAFTESBURY’S ZIONIST MEMORANDUM SCHEME FOR THE COLONISATION OF PALESTINE

_Lord Ashley¹ to Viscount Palmerston._ “ST. GILES HOUSE, “_September 25th, 1840_.

¹ Succeeded his father in 1851 as the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.

“MY LORD,

“The Powers of Europe having determined that they will take into their own hands the adjustment of the Syrian Question, I venture to suggest a measure, which being adopted will promote the development of the immense fertility of all those countries that lie between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean Sea.

“The consideration of the person or the authority to whom these territories may be assigned by the award of the contracting Powers is of no importance. The plan presupposes simply the existence of a recognised and competent Dominion; the establishment and execution of Laws; and a Government both willing and able to maintain internal peace.

“These vast regions are now nearly desolate; every year the produce of them becomes less, because the hands that should till them become fewer. As a source of revenue they are almost worthless, compared, at least, with the riches that industry might force from them. They require both labour and capital.

“Capital, however, is of too sensitive a nature to flow with readiness into any country where neither property nor life can be regarded as secure; but if this indispensable assurance be first given, the avarice of man will be a sufficient motive, and it will betake itself with alacrity to any spot where a speedy or an ample return may be promised to the speculator.

“An inducement such as this is sufficient to stimulate the mercantile zeal of every money-maker under Heaven, and it would be advisable that the Power, whoever he may be, to whom these provinces may fall, should issue and perform a solemn engagement to establish, in his laws affecting property, the principles and practices of European civilisation: but, in respect of these regions now under dispute, there are, so far as a numerous, though scattered, people is concerned, other inducements and other hopes, over and above those which influence the general mass of mankind.

“Without entering into the grounds of the desire and expectations entertained by the Hebrew Race of their return ultimately to the land of their fathers, it may be safely asserted that they contemplate a restoration to the soil of Palestine. They believe, moreover, that the time is near at hand. Every recollection of the past, and every prospect of the future, animates their hope; and fear alone for their persons and their estates represses their exertions. If the Governing Power of the Syrian provinces would promulgate equal laws and equal protection to Jew and Gentile, and confirm his decrees by accepting the four Powers as guarantees of his engagement, to be set forth and ratified in an article of the Treaty, the way would at once be opened, confidence would be revived, and, prevailing throughout these regions, would bring with it some of the wealth and enterprise of the world at large, and, by allaying their suspicions, call forth to the full the hidden wealth and industry of the Jewish people.

“There are many reasons why more is to be anticipated from them than from any others who might settle there. They have ancient reminiscences and deep affection for the land;――it is connected in their hearts with all that is bright in times past, and with all that is bright in those which are to come; their industry and perseverance are prodigious; they subsist, and cheerfully, on the smallest pittance; they are, almost everywhere, accustomed to arbitrary rule, and being totally indifferent to political objects, confine their hopes to the enjoyment of what they can accumulate. Long ages of suffering have trained their people to habits of endurance and self-denial; they would joyfully exhibit them in the settlement and service of their ancient country.

“If we consider their return in the light of a new establishment or colonisation of Palestine, we shall find it to be the cheapest and safest mode of supplying the wants of those depopulated regions. They will return at their own expense, and with no hazard but to themselves; they will submit to the existing form of Government, having no preconceived theories to gratify, and having been almost everywhere trained in implicit obedience to autocratic rule; they will acknowledge the present appropriation of the soil in the hands of its actual possessors, being content to obtain an interest in its produce by the legitimate methods of rent or purchase. Disconnected, as they are, from all the peoples of the earth, they would appeal to no national or political sympathies for assistance in the path of wrong; and the guarantee which I propose, for insertion in the Treaty to be carried out by the personal protection of the respective Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the several nations, would be sufficient to protect them in the exercise of their right.

“The plan here proposed may be recommended by the consideration that large results are promised to the application of very small means; that no pecuniary outlay is demanded of the engaging parties; that while disappointment would bring no ill-effects except to those who declined the offer, the benefit to be derived from it would belong impartially to the whole civilised world....

“I have the honour to be, my Lord, “Your Lordship’s most obedient, humble servant, “ASHLEY.

“THE VISCOUNT PALMERSTON, M.P.

Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.”¹

¹ The Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., by Edwin Hodder, 1866, vol. i., _pp._ 313‒315.