 Consequently, he was prominent in the opposition to Graham's Factory Education Bill of 1843, although (unlike other opponents such as Edward Baines Junior) he did not contradict the picture painted by the Factory Inspectorate of the failure of voluntarism to deliver "efficient" education to the factory children of Ashton, noting only that the Inspectorate showed that the voluntary efforts of the Dissenters had achieved more than the state church.On the defeat of Graham's Bill, he threw himself into efforts to raise money to build and support denominational schools on voluntarist principles, donating generously himself.By 1847, however, whilst his fundraising had met an enthusiastic response, raising over £120,000 for Congregational schools, he could no longer believe that the voluntary principle was sufficient for the education of the people, and objected only to the details, rather than the principle, of that year's Education Bill.