BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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employees, whether hired by the political parties or candidates, were
required by law to be nonvoters. 8
The Corrupt Practices Act of 1883 was the most comprehensive
law of its kind ever passed prior to the First World War.
A measure of
its effectiveness in restricting the campaign expenditures of
candidates can be gauged by the election expense returns submitted
following the General Elections of 1885, 1886, 1892, 1895, and 1900.
The average total expenditure of the five elections was 48 percent
below the 1880 figure of £1,737,300.
Even if we use the amount spent
in the General Election of 1885, the most heavily contested election in
the period under study, the expenses of that year were only 59 percent
of those recorded in 1880.9
When combined with the extension of the franchise to the
counties and the redistribution of electoral boundaries, the
limitations
imposed upon spending transformed the character of late
nineteenth century politics, paving the way for the triumph of the
Primrose League as the extra-parliamentary organ, par excellence, for
the period under study.
The financial restrictions and prohibitions
placed on transporting voters to the polls by the Corrupt Practices Act
made it clear to Conservatives that the means available to them for
reaching the electors, most particularly in the county constituencies,
were limited.
8
Ibid.