BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

Honorary Secretaries. At the bottom of the organizational hierarchy,
female Wardens and canvassers appeared to dominate political
activities.
The significance of the Primrose League Dames and female
Associates was made all
that much more apparent by the failure of the
Liberal
party to provide similar opportunities for its women.
Despite the strides made since 1885, both the Conservative
party and the Primrose League found it increasingly difficult to
sustain levels of growth and initiative by the late 1890's.
In part,
this may have been due to their continued emphasis on the issues which
dominated the 1880's: the threat of national decline, the loss of
influence overseas, and the menacing prospect of an independent
Ireland.
More likely, however, inertia and atrophy were the natural
consequences following years of political triumph.
While Salisbury was temporarily successful
in reviving the
fortunes of the Conservative party due to the outbreak of the Boer war,
the Primrose League was not as fortunate.
Though it struggled to
maintain and to extend its influence, the war marked its transition
from the preeminent Conservative association in Britain to a
significant,
if no longer key focus, of extra-parliamentary activity.
Ultimately both Salisbury and the League proved unsuccessful
in their
bids to retain their positions of power and influence in the twentieth
century; the death of Queen Victoria signaling the end of an old era
and the beginning of a new age.
Between the years 1889 and 1901 the League's development was
marked by three basic tendencies.
These were the growing predominance
of women as the principal figures in its initiative and operation, a