BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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charge 1,222,000 pamphlets, leaflets, and posters.
It had supplied
Central Office lecturers and speakers throughout the country, averaging
more than fifty meetings per week.
At least sixteen thousand out­
voters had been canvassed by volunteers.
By January, the Primrose
League had more than 110,000 members on its register.
Over one
thousand Habitations had begun or were in the process of formation. In
addition the League had made inroads overseas, promoting the
organization in Canada, India, Australia, and the Cape, not to mention
inspiring Continental imitations in both France and Denmark.40
Salisbury as Grand Master responded to the report in an
encouraging vein.
I agree with you in thinking that the results have been
exceedingly satisfactory, and far beyond any that the
most sanguine advocate of the League could have
anticipated. The evidence which reaches me from a
great many different parts of the country all points to
the conclusion that it is hardly possible to overrate
the value of the Primrose League in organizing
Conservative opinion for electoral purposes, and in
bringing to bear the influence of the more highly
educated classes, both men and women, upon those with
whom the preponderating weight of political power is
now lodged. I earnestly trust that the League will
spare no effort to extend the sphere of its usefulness.
I do not doubt that it will be a powerful agent in
overthrowing Radical illusions in many places where
they now seem to be impregnable. 41
Northcote was more circumspect in his praise, noting "those who
have been active in the conduct of the work have, so far as I have been
40 A copy of the letters sent is contained in the Minutes of
the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 20 January 1886.
41
Salisbury to William Hardman, 18 January 1886 in the
Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 20 January 1886,
also cited in England, 23 January 1886, p. 7.