“I hope I have done right in this: I have suppressed all party considerations, and have used every effort to persuade the Times to take just views of the Syrian question. I have been successful. Lord Palmerston told me this evening that the concurrence of the Tory papers had smoothed ten thousand difficulties....” (Ibid., p. 315).
The articles in The Times, to which Lord Shaftesbury refers, appeared in that newspaper at various periods. On the 9th March, 1840 (p. 3), The Times published the following notice:—
“Restoration of the Jews.—A memorandum has been addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe on the subject of the restoration of the Jewish people to the land of Palestine. The document in question, dictated by the peculiar conjuncture of affairs in the East, and the other striking ‘signs of the times,’ reverts to the original covenant which secures that land to the descendants of Abraham, and urges upon the consideration of the powers addressed what may be the probable line of Protestant Christendom to the Jewish people in the present controversy in the East. The memorandum and correspondence which has passed upon the subject have been published.”
This Memorandum (Appendix liv) is written entirely from a Christian point of view. Lord Shaftesbury, although himself a staunch believer in Christianity, was more inclined to give the project a practical character.
On the 17th August, 1840, The Times (p. 3) published the following article:—
“Syria.—Restoration of the Jews.
“The proposition to plant the Jewish people in the land of their fathers, under the protection of the five Powers, is no longer a mere matter of speculation, but of serious political consideration. In a ministerial paper of the 31st of July an article appears bearing all the characteristics of a feeler on this deeply interesting subject. However, it has been reserved for a noble Lord opposed to Her Majesty’s Ministers to take up the subject in a practical and statesmanlike manner, and he is instituting inquiries, of which the following is a copy:—
“1. What are the feelings of the Jews you meet with respect to their return to the Holy Land?
“2. Would the Jews of station and property be inclined to return to Palestine, carry with them their capital, and invest it in the cultivation of the land, if by the operation of law and justice life and property were rendered secure?
“3. How soon would they be inclined and ready to go back?