Note 116 — NOTES ON THE DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE JEWISH QUESTION. (continued 3)

Finn: op. cit., i. 106. The passage is worth quoting: "In 1839, Lord Palmerston's direction to his first Consul in Jerusalem was 'to afford protection to the Jews generally.' The words were simply those, broad and general, as under the circumstances they ought to be, leaving after events to work out their own modifications. The instruction, however, seemed to bear on its face a recognition that the Jews are a nation by themselves and that contingencies might possibly arise in which their relations to Mohammedans should become difficult, though it was impossible to foresee the shape that future transactions might assume upon the impending expulsion of the Egyptians from Syria."