of the contents of the book was transparently inaccurate.  Mr. Watts’ surrender, of course, upset all the arrangements we had agreed on; Mr. Bradlaugh and myself were prepared to stand by him in battle, but not in surrender.  I at once returned to the Secretary of the Plymouth Branch the money collected for defence, not for capitulation, and Mr. Bradlaugh published the following brief statement in the National Reformer for January 21st: 

“PROSECUTION OF Mr. CHARLES WATTS.—­Mr. Charles Watts, as most of our readers will have already learned, has been committed for trial at the Central Criminal Court for February 5th, for misdemeanor, for publication of a work on the population question, entitled “Fruits of Philosophy”, by Charles Knowlton, M.D.  This book has been openly published in England and America for more than thirty years.  It was sold in England by James Watson, who always bore the highest repute.  On James Watson’s retirement from business it was sold by Holyoake & Co., at Fleet Street House, and was afterwards sold by Mr. Austin Holyoake until the time of his death; and a separate edition was, up till last week, still sold by Mr. Brooks, of 282, Strand, W.C.  When Mr. James Watson died, Mr. Charles Watts bought from James Watson’s widow a large quantity of stereotype plates, including this work.  If this book is to be condemned as obscene, so also in my opinion must be many published by Messrs. W.H.  Smith & Son, and other publishers, against whose respectability no imputation has been made.  Such books as Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ and ‘Descent of Man’ must immediately be branded as obscene, while no medical work must be permitted publication; and all theological works, like those of Dulaure, Inman, etc., dealing with ancient creeds, must at once be suppressed.  The bulk of the publications of the society for the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, together with its monthly organ, the Shield, would be equally liable.  The issue of the greater part of classic authors, and of Lempriere, Shakspere, Sterne, Fielding, Richardson, Rabelais, etc., must be stopped:  while the Bible—­containing obscene passages omitted from the lectionary—­must no longer be permitted circulation.  All these contain obscenity which is either inserted to amuse or to instruct, and the medical work now assailed deals with physiological points purely to instruct, and to increase the happiness of men and women.

“If the pamphlet now prosecuted had been brought to me for publication, I should probably have declined to publish it, not because of the subject-matter, but because I do not like its style.  If I had once published it, I should defend it until the very last.  Here Mr. Watts and myself disagree in opinion; and as he is the person chiefly concerned, it is, of course, right that his decision should determine what is done.  He tells me that he thinks the pamphlet indefensible, and that he was misled in publishing