BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

116
Irwin, Vincent, and Dixon Hartland were also named.
The last fourteen
persons cited served on the 1886-87 Grand Council. 60
The high level
of cross-membership combined with the
supervision and attendance of Conservative party functionaries at
executive meetings of both organizations helped to ensure cooperative
relations at the national and local levels.
Certainly some degree of
tension existed, in large measure due to the overlapping functions of
the two bodies, but its impact was, wherever possible, minimized.
A comparison of the performance of the National
Union with the
Primrose League with respect to publications, lecturers, membership,
and income, generally favors the latter.
Publications were the Union's
strong point, with over five million leaflets produced in the 1885-86
Primrose year compared with the League's more modest figure of three
million. 6 ! During the period surrounding the 1886 General Election,
the gap widened with the Union producing a total of twelve million
pamphlets, fly sheets, and posters as compared with the League's
relatively modest record of 1,289,928 for the same period and its
overall total for the 1886-87 Primrose year of only 1,652,928.
By the
Primrose year 1888-89 the League's publication figures had edged up
only slightly higher, to a total
of 1,724,100 and most of these were
reprints. 62
60
"National Union Annual Report to the Conference, 1887"; NUA
2/2/1. Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 8 January
1884; 23 February 1884; 25 April 1885; 21 May 1886. The Primrose
League Gazette, 1 October 1887, p. 1.
61
Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 19 May
1886, citing The Morning Post article of 20 May 1886.
62
"National Union Annual Report to the Conference, 1886"; NUA
2/2/1. LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 24 May 1887. The Times, 21