BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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Conservative party leadership.
This shift was indicated in the
League's growing official membership figures which rose from 11,366 in
1885 to 565,861 in 1887 to over one million in 1891 and more than two
million by 1910.4
The numbers suggest what was in fact the case, a
large popular basis of support which extended beyond a personal
allegiance to any single member of the Conservative party.
It was through this tremendous growth at the grass-roots level
that the League was able to serve as a potent political subculture for
nurturing Conservative sympathies, enabling the elite party to come to
terms with democracy. No other organization was to rival its influence
in late Victorian Britain, and save for its European counterpart from
the left in Germany, the Social Democratic Party, it had no continental
equivalent.
With its host of glittering notables at its apex and a loyal
multi-class representation at its base, the Primrose League became the
principal carrier and fortifier of Conservative principles throughout
the nation. It was the party's answer to popular democracy. The
League, in alliance with the Marquis of Salisbury's leadership from
above, provided a constant and sustained effort against the quickening
pace of reform. It nurtured within its ranks substantial segments of
the newly enfranchised electorate predisposed to "conservatism." The
years 1883 to 1901 were to be the most critical years in its
4 The figures provided are contained in Janet Robb's, The
Primrose League (New York: AMS Press, 1968), Appendix III, a reprint of
the 1942 edition published by Columbia University Press. The numbers
are taken from reports of the annual Grand Habitations and can be found
in The Primrose League Gazette, 1 September 1899, p. 9; May, 1910, p.
4.