The Thames Star. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1894. THE LIBERATOR FRAUDS.

Thames Star, Volume XXV, Issue 4669, 24 February 1894, Page 2

The Thames Star. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1894. THE LIBERATOR FRAUDS.

AccoEPiNatoaeablegrain from London last Thursday Jabez Spencer Balf our, the Liberator defaulter, is under arrest in Buenos Ayres at the instance of the English Government, and has demanded to be released because thirty davtf have elapsed since he was ar- . rested. It -mil be a thousandl pitow if throueh some technicality, Mr Jsalfour should fail to get an opportunity to prove to an English Judge that he ehould not be sent to gaol for life. No more cruel frauds than those connected with the Liberator Peraanut Building Society wew committed

in recent years. Until not very long ago the Society stood well with the public, and quite suddenly it collapsed, entailing a loss of seven millions sterling upon working people principally. It continued paying a regular dividend of 5 per cent, till the last, but did so, not out of profits, but out of new deposits, and the regularity of the dividends threw the public off their guard. Two or three years before the collapse the auditors reported that "no more dividends should be paid," but at the request of Mr Balfour that clause was expunged from the report, and the public were misled.

Mr Jabez Spencer Balfour was M.P. for Burnley, and other directors were leading men. A Bank in London was started by those concerned, and an immense number of workpeople and those in the lower middle class who had but small means were induced to take shares. In the beginning of 1893 the crash came, to the dismay of thousands who saw ruin and starvation staring them in the face. Fraud was evident, and prosecutions were begun. At the Central Criminal Court, London, on the 27th March, 1898, Henry Granville Wright, the solicitor to the Society, and James William Hobbs, builder, formerly Mayor of Croydon, were found guilty of fraud, and sentenced to seventeen years' imprisonment, and a man named Newman was convicted and sentenced to five years.

The Judge, Mr Justice Hawkins, severely censured the prisoners for the cruel sufferings they had caused to so many thousands of poor people, and so great was the sympathy aroused that a Mansion House fund was started, and £30,226 relief funds were subscribed. Large as that sum appears, it was utterly inadequate to afford much relief to the sufferers. The number of applicants appealing to the Belief Committee was 2042. It is said that of them 621 were males and 1414 females. Of the latter 652 were single "women, 161 were married, and 601 were widows. An analysis of the ages showed that 1070 were under 60 years of age, 536 were over 60 and under 70, 372 were over 70 and under 80, and 57 were 80 years and upwards. The total loss of these particular applicants was £298,345, but vast numbers of losers never sought public relief. The loss of £7,000,000 entailed suffering upon thousands of men, women, and childdreo, and is to be devoutly hoped that the efforts of the British Government to bring Jabez S. Balfour to justice will be successful. The arm of the law is long and strong, and aithcugh he has riches in Brazil and is able to pay for a bodyguard and the best legal assistance, he may find that Justice, like an avenging angel, will assert her sway.

" The mills of God grind slowly, Bnfc they grind exceeding small, Though with patience He stands waiting, With exactness grinds He all."