157 
a pamphlet entitled “Robert Owen, the Visionary/’ It 
was originally delivered as a lecture on the third anni= 
versary of the opening of the Manchester Hall of Science. 
In 1847 Hr. Watts became interested in the establishment 
of the Lancashire, afterwards known as the Public School 
Association. He became the principal advocate of the 
scheme and held over a hundred public meetings throughout 
the kingdom. The agitation resulted in the presentation 
of two opposing bills to Parliament for the promotion of 
popular education. Hr. Watts was under examination for 
three consecutive days before the Select Committee. He 
took a leading part in the agitation for the repeal of the 
so-called “ Taxes on knowledge,” including the duty on 
advertisements, the newspaper stamp, and the excise on the 
manufacture of paper. In 1853 he wrote a “Report upon 
the statistical enquiry instituted by the Executive Com- 
mittee of the National Public School Association in St. 
Michael’s and St. John’s Wards in November and Hecember, 
1852.” In 1860 he published a pamphlet on “Machinery, 
its influence on Work and Wages,” showing that an 
increase in successful machinery leads to prosperity, by 
making profit and so increasing the fund for the future 
employment of labour. “ The Incidence of Taxation,” 
published in the following year, shows the quantity and 
value of articles, paying customs and excise duties, con- 
sumed by the working classes as deduced from data 
obtained from the Rochdale Co-operative Stores. In the 
same year he published a pamphlet on “Trade Societies and 
Strikes, their good and evil influences on the members of 
Trades’ Unions, and on society at large,” in which he 
discussed the methods in which Trade Societies were then 
worked, and offered suggestions as to how their operations 
might be more beneficial to their members. He considered 
that the societies should be worked more as agencies, 
through whose organizations the men could be drafted to 
