BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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Geographically situated opposite the Irish coast, Whitehaven
included a large proportion of Irish immigrants within its borough.
Catholics were estimated at twenty-two percent of the 1906 electorate.
Not surprisingly, the Orange vote appears to have obtained 7.5 percent
of the vote in that same year.42
Nevertheless, an examination of the minutes records of
Whitehaven Habitation does not suggest that religious, ethnic, and Home
Rule issues played an especially prominent role in its functions,
speeches, or literature.
This relative lack of emphasis on the Irish
question might be explained in part by the somewhat later formation
date of the Habitation, 1888, at a time when Irish issues appeared to
be featured less prominently than had been the case in the 1886 General
Election.
The exceedingly large number of Catholic voters might have
been another factor since the League appeared unwilling to offend
unnecessarily such a large and hence potentially influential interest
group.
Still, the subject received adequate attention.
At least two
lectures were held in 1889 and an address delivered in 1893 opposed
Gladstone's Home Rule bill.
The Habitation likewise passed a
resolution in 1898 which supported legislation introduced by the
Conservative government to provide assistance to voluntary schools.43
However the measure, unlike Home Rule, was likely to have appealed to
November 1900.
42
Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections, p. 330.
43 Whitehaven Habitation Minutes, 7 January 1889; 6 February
1889; 7 April 1893; 2 February 1898.