BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

162
Grand Habitation beginning in 1893 of nine Provincial
representatives
to sit on Grand Council. fi 3
A level down the organizational
ladder stood the County
Councils (1890).
They served as the Primrose counterpart to the
elective institutions of the same name implemented by the Conservative
government in 1888.
The Councils were served by a President and
Secretary. They were entrusted with summoning Divisional and local
representatives for periodic meetings.
The County Councils were
optional
bodies.
institutions, their creation left to the discretion of local
They never achieved a wide representation.64
Another
innovation implemented during these years was the
Knights Imperial.
Introduced in 1892 as a revenue raising device for
Grand Council,
its members were essentially nonparticipatory,
contributing one guinea a year to the Grand Council.
Formally the
organization was modeled after the LGC.
By 1901 it had a membership of
1,895 Knights and included fifteen subordinate chapters.65
The LGC also sought to boost its numbers and financial
contributors.
In 1892 it initiated Drawing Room meetings, gatherings
held in prominent members' homes as a means of enticing recruits. Five
63 The Primrose League Gazette, 1 May 1899, pp. 6-7; 1 June
1900, pp. 7-9; 1 June 1901, pp. 5-6; 18 April 1893, p. 2. There is no
mention of Provincial Habitations in subsequent Annual Reports
submitted to Grand Habitation or the 1899 and 1904 Rolls of
Habitations.
64
The Primrose League Gazette, 19 April 1890, p. 2; 7 May
1893, p. 7; 18 April 1893, pp. 2, 9-10. The 1899 Roll of Habitations
lists only two County Councils, Cheshire and Suffolk.
65
The Primrose League Gazette, 7 May 1892, p. 7; 18 April
1893, p. 2; 1 June 1891, p. 5.