PRIMOGENITURE 



6330 



PRIMROSE 



Methodists had numbered after 

 30 years of Wesley's preaching and 

 organizing. Within 30 years it 

 had spread over Great Britain and 

 had sent its agents to the U.S.A. 

 and Canada. For many years it 

 had to face keen persecution, at 

 the hands both of the Wesleyans 

 and others, and in many cases its 

 preachers were imprisoned. In 

 1844 it first extended its work to 

 the foreign field, and in 1870 its 

 African mission was started. After 

 the death of Hugh Bourne, in 1852, 

 the connexion was reorganized and 

 was for some years administered in 

 seven districts ; but it was not 

 until 1902 that the body unified 

 and consolidated its system of 

 government. 



The official statistics of the de- 

 nomination for 1923 show a mem- 

 bership of 210.923, with 1,091 

 ministers and 13,939 local 

 preachers. The chapels number 

 4,405, and there are 419,632 Sun- 

 day scholars. See Methodism; 

 Wesleyan Methodist. 



Primogeniture (Lat. primus, 

 first ; genilus, begotten). Seniority 

 by birth, and, by extension, the 

 system under which the eldest son 

 succeeds to the entire real estate of 

 a father dying intestate, to the 

 exclusion of all the other children. 

 This right of primogeniture in 

 males existed among the Jews, but 

 not among other ancient peoples, 

 nearly all of whom divided the 

 lands equally, some among all the 

 children, some among the males 

 only. It was not part of the Roman 

 law, and was abolished in the U.K. 

 by the Law of Property Act (q.v. ) 



It originated in the feudal sys- 

 tem, when the honorary feuds, or 

 titles of nobility, created were of 

 necessity made indivisible and 

 inheritable by the eldest son only. 

 The inconveniences resulting from 

 the division of estates, by the 

 consequent division of military 

 services, next led to the establish- 

 ment of a custom whereby the 

 eldest son inherited the whole of 

 the lands held by his father in 

 military tenure. This rule of in- 

 heritance was introduced into 

 England by William the Con- 

 queror. It still remained part of 

 the English constitution that 

 socage fees were divisible among 

 all the male children, though 

 knight's fees descended to the eld- 

 est son. By the time of Henry III, 

 however, socage lands also had 

 almost entirely fallen into the 

 right of succession by primogeni- 

 ture, except in certain parts, such 

 as Kent, where the ancient gavel 

 kind tenure was jealously pre- 

 served, and in some manors and 

 townships, where succession was 

 still determined by local custom. 



With regard to females, succes- 

 sion by primogeniture only exists 

 in respect to inheritance of the 

 crown. In respect of female digni- 

 ties and titles of honour the right 

 of succession, but not of primogen- 

 iture, is established. Thus, if a man 

 holds an earldom to himself and 

 the heirs of his body, and dies leav- 

 ing daughters only, the eldest does 

 not become countess as a matter of 

 course, but the dignity falls into 

 abeyance until the sovereign, as 

 the fountain of honour, confers it 

 upon which of the daughters he 

 pleases. See Family; Genealogy; 



Primorskaya. Easterly pro- 

 vince of Siberia known as the Lit- 

 toral or Maritime Province (q.v.). 



Primrose (Primula vulgaris). 

 Perennial woodland herb of the 

 natural order Primulaceae. It is a 



Primrose. Primula vulgaris, flower- 

 ing in British woods in spring 



native of Europe and N. Africa, 

 and grows profusely in Britain. 

 From the thick, fleshy rootstock 

 the wrinkled and almost stalkless 

 leaves rise in a circle. The long- 

 stalked flowers which appear in 

 April really form an umbel, as in 

 cowslip, but the common flowering 

 stem is suppressed and concealed 

 between the leaves. The funnel- 

 shaped flowers are of a very pale- 

 yellow tint, and of two forms : in 

 one form there is a long style bring- 

 ing the round stigma to the mouth 

 of the flower-tube, with the stamens 

 half-way down ; and in the other 

 the style reaches only half-way up, 

 whilst the stamens partly fill the 

 mouth. This arrangement secures 

 cross-pollination, the long tongue 

 of the bee-fly (Sombylius) the 

 chief pollinating agent having to 

 touch both these points in its 

 search for the nectar that lies at the 

 bottom. Pollen is carried from the 

 anthers of the long-styled to the 

 stigma of the short-styled, and vice 

 .versa. See Flower ; Pollination ; 

 Primulaceae. 



Primrose ,NEIL JAMES ARCHIBALD 

 (1882-1917). British politician and 

 soldier. He was born Dec. 14, 1882, 



Neil Primrose, 

 British politician 



2nd son of the 

 earl of Rose- 

 bery, and edu- 

 cated at Eton 

 and New Col- 

 lege, Oxford. 

 As Liberal 

 member for 

 the Wisbech 

 div. of Cam- 

 bridgeshire 

 from 1910, he 

 made his mark as a rising hope of 

 his party, strongly criticising the 

 cabinet's Ulster policy in 1914. In 

 the Great War, Primrose served in 

 the Yeomanry, and then acted as 

 under-secretary for foreign affairs, 

 Feb.-May, 1915, returning to mili- 

 tary duties until appointed parlia- 

 mentary military secretary to the 

 ministry of munitions shortly be- 

 fore the fall of the Asquith cabinet, 

 Dec., 1916. Chief whip, Dec., 1916, 

 he returned to the Yeomanry soon 

 afterwards, and was killed in action 

 in Palestine, Nov. 18, 1917. See 

 Rosebery, Earl of. 



Primrose Family, THE. Family 

 of the Vicar of Wakefield in Gold- 

 smith's story of that name. The 

 vicar himself, the narrator of the 

 story, is by nature an admirer of 

 human happy faces, and a firm up- 

 holder of the belief that it is un- 

 lawful for a clergyman of the 

 Church of England to marry twice. 

 In addition to Deborah Primrose, 

 his wife, a good- natured, notable 

 woman for pickling, preserving, 

 and cookery none could excel her 

 the characters include George, their 

 eldest son ; Olivia, open, sprightly, 

 and commanding victimised by 

 Squire Thornhill ; Sophia, soft, 

 modest, and alluring who wins 

 Sir William Thornhill, alias Mr. 

 Burchell ; Moses, the lad who, be- 

 ing sent to sell a horse, buys a gross 

 of green spectacles, and two much 

 younger boys, Dick and Bill. The 

 young Primroses are summed up 

 by their father as being all of an 

 equally generous, credulous, simple, 

 and inoffensive nature. (See Gold- 

 smith, Oliver ; Olivia 



Primrose Hill and Park. 

 London eminence and open space. 

 Adjoining t. John's Wood and 

 Regent's Park, and covering about 

 50 acres, the park, with adjoining 

 property now largely built upon, 

 passed from the leper hospital of 

 S. James to Eton College, and was 

 in the early part of Queen Victoria's 

 reign handed over to the govern- 

 ment in exchange for lands at 

 Eton. On the summit of the hill, 

 206 ft., which commands one of 

 the finest views in London, is a 

 dial indicating the direction and 

 distances of the chief landmarks 

 of the city. At the base of the hill, 

 which preceded Hyde Park as a 



