Jabez Balfour as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886. In 1880 he was appointed chairman of the Northampton Street Tramways. Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Sir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the "Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited" in December 1887. In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building
Liberal Party of Newfoundland and Labrador shaky hold on power resulted in the 1972 general election. This time, Smallwood's Liberals were conclusively defeated, falling to only nine seats. Smallwood was forced out of the party, and formed his own Newfoundland Reform Liberal Party, which ran in the 1975 general election against the Liberals and the Tories. Due in part to massive vote-splitting, the Tories won 30 seats against 20 for the two Liberal factions combined (14 for the Liberals and 6 for the Reform Liberals). The Liberals were badly split and demoralised, and remained on the opposition benches until 1989. In the 1989 provincial election the