BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

312
nineteenth century traditions with twentieth century innovations. 1 The
retirement of Salisbury as Prime Minister in 1902 along with his Chief
Agent, Captain Middleton, and three members of his Cabinet served as a
further reminder of the passage of an age.
The following year under
Balfour's leadership four more ministers left office, unmistakeably
marking the end of Salisbury's administration.2
The new generation of Conservative political
leaders, even the
senior statesmen, Balfour and Chamberlain, had no direct association
with the Disraelian heritage nor did they focus post-Victorian politics
squarely on the issue of Home Rule.
Instead, Chamberlain shifted the
focus toward tariff reform and imperial preference in the hopes of
finding a new platform on which to base a popular following.
Nevertheless, it was the Liberals, aligning themselves with the newly
formed Labor party, who achieved electoral victory.
Their triumph was
obtained on the basis of "retrenchment"
(free trade) combined with a
hint of "reform"
(opposition to Chinese slavery in South Africa).3
The Primrose League, like its Grand Master Salisbury, who
retained the title until his death in 1903, was in many respects illprepared
to make its way into the emerging arena of twentieth century
1
A theme explored at length in Samuel Hynes, The Edwardian
Turn of Mind (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1968).
2 They included Hicks Beach, the Earl of Cadogan, and Lord
James in 1902 and Joseph Chamberlain, Lord George Hamilton, C.T.
Ritchie, and Lord Balfour of Burleigh in 1903.
3 For a study of the "Retrenchment versus Reform" dilemma
characterizing Liberal politics between 1906 and 1914, see the M.A.
thesis by D.E. Sheets submitted to Columbia University in 1980 entitled
C.F.G. Masterman and the Crisis of Liberalism.