BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

158
approximation of their value for the end of 1888. 55
The calculations
reveal, respectively, 1,931 Habitations and 741,717 members as against
the 1888 Roll listing of 1,730 and 565,084.
Thus the 1888 Roll shows a
net decline of 201 Habitations and 176,633 members over projected
official League figures, a respective eleven and twenty-four percent
reduction in the above stated categories.
Equally striking is that by the time of the 1899 Roll the
active Habitations declined from the 1888 figure of 1,730 to 1,541.
Divisions for England, Wales, and Ireland dropped from 366 in 1888 to
350 in 1899. Only six District Agents representing nine Provinces in
England, an area formerly supervised by twenty-two men.56
j n general
the numbers support what Minute records obliquely suggest: overall
League stagnation, even decline, and the loss disproportionately
represented at the lowest levels of organization.
Production and distribution of pamphlets also exhibited a
decelerating trend between 1889 and 1901.
The 3,048,000 leaflets
circulated in 1891 represented a high for these years.
However, the
numbers were perhaps misleading, reflecting the League's shift from
55
The official Habitation and membership figures are those
contained in The Primrose League Gazette, 1 September 1899, p. 9. They
are Primrose year totals, running roughly from April to April. The
1888 and 1899 Rolls, however, are based on calendar years. For this
reason the average of the 1888 and 1889 Primrose Years is taken in
order to have the official figures approximate those represented on the
1888 Roll of Habitations.
56 Based on my computer tabulation of the 1888 and 1899 Rolls
of Habitations. Division and Habitation listings for Scotland are
available only for 1899 and therefore not subject to a comparison.
Local records and declining Tributes suggest that the figures contained
in the 1899 Roll are well in excess of their actual numbers.