JABEZ BALFOUR 119 



the traffic of the High Street was regulated — or 

 supposed to be regulated— by the Beadle, and the 

 rates were low, and Croydon was a country town, and 

 everything was dull and humdrum. It was a little 

 unfortunate that the first Mayor of Croydon and 

 Liberal Member of Parliament for Tarn worth, that 

 hiohlv imaginative financier Jabez Spencer Balfour, 

 should have been wanted by the police, a fugitive from 

 justice brought back from the Argentine, and a 

 criminal convicted of fraud as a company promoter ; 

 but accidents will happen, and the Town Council did 

 its best, by turning his portrait face to the wall, and by 

 subsequently (as it is reported) losing it. He was 

 sent in 1895, a little belatedly, to fourteen years' 

 penal servitude, and the victims of his " Liberator " 

 frauds went into the workhouse for the most part, or 

 died. He ceased to be V 460 on release on licence, 

 and became again Jabez Spencer Balfour, and so died, 

 obscurely. 



The Liberal Party in the Government had, over 

 Jabez Balfour, one of its several narrow escapes from 

 complete moral ruin ; for Balfour was on extremely 

 friendly terms with the members of Gladstone's 

 ministry, 1892-94, and was within an aee of being 

 given a Cabinet post. Let us pause to consider the 

 odd affinity between Jabez Balfour and Trebitsch 

 Lincoln and Liberal politics. 



The Town Hall — ahem ! Municipal Buildings — ■ 

 stands on the site of the disused and abolished Central 

 Croydon station, and the neighbourhood of it is 

 glimpsed afar off by the fine tower, 170 ft. in height. 

 All the departments of the Corporation are housed 

 under one roof, including the fine Public Library and 

 its beautiful feature, the Braithwaite Hall. The 

 Town Council is housed in that municipal splendour 

 without which no civic body can nowadays deliberate 

 in comfort, and even the vestibule is worthy of a 

 palace. I take the following " official " description of it. 



" On either side of the vestibule are rooms for 

 Porter and telephone. Beyond are the hall and 



