BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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the highest level by the operations of the LCC.
The Ladies' executive
was responsible for maintaining and extending the boundaries of the
League in a number of ways.
It was a major contributor to the "Magic
Lantern Tour" sponsored by the Grand Council in the winter of 1888-89,
donating a generous one hundred pounds to the traveling slide show
exposition.2
More important still, was its role in serving as the sole
financier of a Primrose League horse drawn van.
The vehicle made its
way to the rural voting divisions of north and south Bedfordshire and
Buckinghamshire in the winter of 1891-92, proselytizing on behalf of
League and party principles.
The project had the enthusiastic backing
of influential Conservatives, encouraged most particularly by Lady
Salisbury and Middleton, the latter of whom volunteered "to afford us
any assistance in his power and to clear any route we liked. "3
While the venture was initiated at the suggestion of Grand
Council and received the general supervision of both the Joint
Committee and Middleton's agents, this in no way lessens the LGC's
contribution.
It proved to be of great benefit to the Conservatives,
offering a challenge to Radical vans traversing the countryside. The
benefits to the League, however, proved more elusive and no effort was
made to finance similar campaigns in the later years under study.4
2 See the "Ordinances of the Ladies' Grand Council" contained
on the inside page of the LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 1886-1889
and the resolution passed by the Grand Council, Minutes of the Grand
Council of the Primrose League, 2 December 1886.
3
LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 25 June 1891.
4 Former Honorary Secretary of the Victoria (Dames) Habitation
in Hammersmith, Mrs. Wienholt, first proposed utilizing vans to the LGC
in December of 1889. LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 6 December 1889.