LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
PRIMROSES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—Is it permissible to ask the many readers of the Spectator who are Conservatives and Unionists, what purpose, political -or other, they hope to serve by keeping alive the grotesque -fashion of wearing primroses on April 19th ? That maid- servants and cab-drivers should gladly avail themselves of a pretext for a little personal decoration, and should have no better reason for doing so than that somebody tells them it is .4' Primrose Day," is intelligible enough ; but that educated people who may be presumed to have some knowledge of history and of human nature, should seriously desire to intro- -duce into England the habit of wearing party badges, is less -easily explained.
Assuming even that the Earl of Beaconsfield was a heaven- descended statesman, of a type so unique that he is entitled to a posthumous homage such as nobody has ever given to Burke or Pitt, to Peel, to Wellington, or to Palmerston, it is surely open to question whether the appearance of political -symbols in our houses and our streets is calculated to increase his reputation, or to further the interests of the party with which his name is associated. Suppose that the Primrose demonstration becomes an annual custom, it is inevitable that the opposite party will be teMpted to make reprisals, and to select a day on which they too may flaunt the emblems -of their political creed in the sight of their opponents. And if Liberals should be so foolish as to yield to this temptation, -what will have been gained ? No cause will have been either strengthened or weakened. No political convert will have been made. But a new element of friction and discomfort 'will have been introduced into social life, and intelligent people who happen to hold different opinions on political questions will find increased difficulty in meeting each other on equal and friendly terms. We do not need to recount he story of the Wars of the Roses, of Guelphs and Ghibellines, of Montagues and Capulets, to assure our- selves that life is rendered less tolerable, in proportion -to the degree in which differences of opinion are ob- truded, when they are not asked for, and when they serve no useful purpose. It has long been a happy characteristic -of English social life that men and women of very different -creeds and parties can enjoy intercourse without inquiring or -caring to know what were the points of feeling on which they differed. The simple fact that one does not know to what party a stranger at a dinner-table belongs, helps to beget -among well-bred people a reticence and caution, and a respect for opposite beliefs, which are in themselves civilising -agencies of the most valuable kind. But if primroses or -other party emblems are to be thrust into our view in the -club, at the Exchange, or in private life, we shall have done something to vulgarise politics and to alienate friendships, 'without helping forward by one step the creed in which we [As far as we know, Liberal Unionists never wear the primrose on April 19th. That is a custom sacred to the personal worshippers of the genius of Lord Beaconsfield.— ED. Spectator.]
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