BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

75
Habitations. 55
The dispute between Bartlett and the Central Office is also of
interest in that grievances within Conservative circles were rarely
worded publicly.
Like the party it represented, the Primrose League
preferred, wherever possible, to minimize internal frictions and to
avoid their public exposure.
In taking this tack the Conservatives and
the League distinguished themselves rather noticeably from their
counterparts, the Liberals and the National Liberal Federation. 56
Finally, it should be noted that while the Central Office was
generally slow in responding to grievances, nevertheless, it sought to
show some measure of flexibility to criticisms from below, particularly
55
LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 9 April 1886; 29 October
1886; 12 November 1886; 26 November 1886; 10 December 1886; 17 February
1888. In response to initiatives made by LGC in the spring of 1886 to
alleviate difficulties of poor Habitations, the Grand Council agreed
that the women could contribute funds to the newly established Joint
Literature Committee for possible distribution to poor Habitations.
However, donations were to be strictly limited to special functions
which included exhibitions, formation of club libraries, and general
social functions. The Grand Council, through the establishment of this
policy, made clear its opposition to direct subsidization of
Habitations. LGC Executive Committee Minutes, 9 April 1886; 7 May
1886. The LGC responded by generously contributing five hundred pounds
to the Joint Committee in support of the proposed program and the
continuance of the existing policy of funding lecturers. LGC Executive
Committee Minutes, 14 May 1886; 28 May 1886; 29 October 1886.
56
D.A. Hamer, Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and
Rosebery discusses at some length, the factors responsible for Liberal
party dissension, subjected as it was to a number of factious quarrels
from below and personal struggles from above, many clearly visible to
the public eye. See also Peter Stansky, Ambitions and Strategies
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), for a detailed behind-the-scenes
portrayal of the 1890's quest for leadership within the party.
Feuchtwanger and others have frequently noted the contrasting methods
by which the Liberal and Conservative parties institute policy and
react to dissension. Feuchtwanger, Disraeli, Democracy and the Tory
Party, pp. 190, 211-12.