BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

72
the League.
Lady Londonderry also served as a member of the LGC. 4^
All were married to shareholders of England. 47
Other prominently placed Conservative figures mentioned in the
registry included the Earl of Stanhope, Viscount Cranbrook, Marquis of
Waterford, Earl of Glasgow, Sir E.C. Guinness, the Earl of Egremont,
and Lord Elcho.
Small-scale subscribers but nonetheless of particular
importance in the political world included A.B. Forwood, Conservative
party magnate of Liverpool (five shares) and Salisbury's nephew, Arthur
Balfour (one share). 48
The records suggest, then, more than a casual
connection between newspaper, League, and party.
England tempered its remarks somewhat in May, approving of the
appointments of Henry Chaplin, Colonel Malleson, Sir Albert Rollit,
Lord Harris, and George Curzon to the executive.
However, criticism
again surfaced against Vanity Fair that same month, and in August,
England resumed its attack on the League's decision to establish its
own newspaper.49
The repeated outbreaks prompted the Grand Council to
ask Rollit, editor of England and member of the Council, to persuade
Bartlett to refrain from making attacks on the League.50
46
Based on my computerized listing of titled local Habitation
officers derived from The Primrose League: Roll of Habitations, 1888
and the LGC executive membership for 1887-88 provided in The Primrose
League Gazette, 1 September 1888, p. 1.
47
"England Newspaper and Publishing Company, Ltd.," 11 May
1889, PRO BT31 3081/17618.
48
Ibid.
49
England, 7 May 1887, p. 9; 14 May 1887, p. 10; 20 August
1887, p. 9.
50 Minutes of the Grand Council of the Primrose League, 30
August 1887.