Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-05-07
4 CULOSSAL SWINDLER
Jabez BaIfour Enriched Himself at
Expense of Poor People.
His Creditors Numbered Hun
dreds of Thousands.
A Rascal Who Was Held In highest Esteem by
confidlns Stockholders.

LONDON, May 7.--Jabez g. Balfour was
landed at Southampton from the steamer
Tartar Prince, on which no came from
Buenos Ayres. Balfour was taken of the
steamer by custom house launch and
landed at Netley wharf The prisoner was
then put ON train for London. Arriving
ut London, tho train was stopped at Vaux-
hall station and Balfour was transferred
to cab and driven to the Bow street police
station. He was Immediately put into the
prisoners dock, and charges were formally
lodged against him.
Not since the bursting Of the South Sea
Bubble has there been a financial scheme
50 widely ruinous to confiding investors
"a the operations of Jabez Balfour, the
man just brought back to England. The
losers through the collapse of his COM
panies were literally to be numbered by
hundreds of thousands. These were
largely the people who could least afford
to lose-widows and orphans and aged peo-
pie of small means.
They had been induced to invest because
"Mr Balfour was such good mani" His
father and mother had been temperance
lecturers. He was a leader in church af-
fairs and looked with the strongest disap-
prevails upon theaters, music halls, cards,
dancing, and all such worldly things.
He was, moreover, u member OF the
house of commons, where he was one OF
the most enthusiastic followers of Mr..
Gladstone, one of the stanchest champions
of home rule and one of the sternest re-
provers of the house of lords for its plutoc-
racy and its contempt for the common
people. Strange as it may appear, he laid
the foundations of his colossal scheme upon
the ruins of various similar schemes that
had ended in disaster-to their confiding
stockholders.
The Liberator, his chief concern, was
built upon the ruins of the Alliance Ma
tional Land, Building and Investment So
ciety, and the Estates bank and a number
of other concerns known as the Alliance
group. Haviig previously had some ex-
pcrience in the Office of firm of parlia-
mentary agents, he came modestly before
the world in 1857 as the virtual founder of
the Lands Allotment company, from
which seven months later was developed
The Liberator Building Society.
The basis of the organization was ex-
pressed in its Latin motto, "Libera sedes
liberum facit' - free home makes a free
man. Its name was a success; hundreds |
Of Congregationalists were attracted by its |
prospectus, and an appeal was made to |
Nonconformist ministers and others con- |
nected with temperance and religious So
cieties all over the land to promote its |
benefcent objects. In the first year they |
received l per cent commission ON the |
shares and deposits, and subsequently n |
per cent, and in the end q round sum of
$7O6 900 was paid in this way.
In 1875 another association was Matched,
the LANDS Allotment company" with
practically the same directorate and Jabez
Spencer Balfour as the controlling genius.
The relations between these were exten-
sive and peculiar; in five years the Lib
orator had financed the other two to the
extent of 5000, 600; it's shareholders and de-
positors knew little, if anything, of the
state of affairs, while, according to the ex-
animation in the bankruptcy court, it's
leading directors and officials were equally
innocent Of all knowledge-the one thing
in which they all agreed being implicit
and unlimited confidence in "Mr. Bal
four"
From this period onward there was O
regular succession of new companies; the
secret of Balfourian finance was: "When
in difficulty start new company" In
larly paid dividend of per cent to the
shareholders and 4 per cent to depositors.
The recklessness Of the flnanciering
Was Never Surpassed.
Balfour discovered a progressive builder
at Croydon named Hobbs, a man in
comparatively small way of business in
1878. Such large amounts were advanced
to Hobbs that in 1885, when he was prac-
tically insolvent, he owed the Liherator
e3,5O0,000. Finally, when Hobbs failed, his
concern was indebted to the Liberator to
the extent of $40, ,495, 600.
Apart from these transactions, "the Bal.
four group" were financing properties of q
more or less speculative character all over
the country. All these involved scores of
thousands Of pounds. Though disaster
followed these concerns from first to last,
dividends We're always found in the new
subscriptions and deposits, and directors
remuneration never failed Under the
latter head, Jabez BalfOur and his col
leagues divided among them from the
seven leading companies a total Of $882, TO.
The total amount of ruin brought upon
investors through the final crash aggre-
gated $30, ,2S9,770, a colossal sum. But
there sae other items which, il added,
l,riv 4 To-