occasion we are as much solicited by candidates as if we
were to choose a member of Parliament." He goes on to say that "our
young friend Wedderburn has acquired a great character by the
appearance he has made," and that Wilkie, the minister, "has turned up
from obscurity and become a very fashionable man, as he is indeed a
very singular one. Monboddo's oddities divert, Sir David's (Lord
Hailes) zeal entertains, Jack Dalrymple's (Sir John of the _Memoirs_)
rhetoric interests. The long drawling speakers have found out their
want of talents and rise seldomer. In short, the House of Commons is
less the object of general curiosity to London than the Select Society
is to Edinburgh. The 'Robin Hood,' the 'Devil,' and all other speaking
societies are ignoble in comparison."[82]

At the second regular meeting, which was held on the 19th of June
1754, Mr. Adam Smith was Praeses, and gave out the subjects for debate
on the following meeting night: (1) Whether a general naturalisation
of foreign Protestantism would be advantageous to Britain; and (2)
whether bounties on the exportation of corn be advantageous to trade
and manufactures as well as to agriculture.[83] Lord Campbell in
mentioning this circumstance makes it appear as if Smith chose the
latter subject of his own motion, in accordance with a rule of the
society whereby the chairman of one meeting selected the subject for
debate at the next meeting; and it would have been a not uninteresting
circumstance if it were true, for it would show the line his ideas
were taking at that early period of his career; but as a matter of
fact the rule in question was not adopted for some time after the
second meeting, and it is distinctly mentioned in the minutes that on
this particular occasion the Praeses "declared before he left the chair
the questions that were agreed upon by the majority of the meeting to
be the subject of next night's debate."[84] It is quite possible, of
course, that the subjects may have been of Smith's suggestion, but
that can now only be matter of conjecture. Indeed, whether it be due
to his influence or whether it arose merely from a general current of
interest moving in that direction at the time, the subjects, discussed
by this society were very largely economic; so much so that in a
selection of them published by the _Scots Magazine_ in 1757 every one
partakes of that character. "What are the advantages to the public and
the State from grazing? what from