d ditto (not under 1000), L4.

In the following year the society increased the number of its prizes
to 92; in 1757 to 120, in 1758 to 138, and in 1759 to 142; and they
were devoted to the encouragement of every variety of likely
industry--kid gloves, straw hats, felt hats, soap, cheese, cradles to
be made of willow grown in Scotland. One premium was offered to the
person who would "cure the greatest number of smoky chimneys to the
satisfaction of the society."

The prize for the best essay on taste was won by Professor Gerard of
Aberdeen, and the essay was published, and is still well known to
students of metaphysics; and the prize for the best dissertation on
vegetation and agriculture fell to Dr. Francis Home. The best
invention was a piece of linen made like Marseille work but on a loom,
and for this L20 were awarded to Peter Brotherton, weaver in Dirleton,
East Lothian. Foulis won in 1757 the prize for the best printed book
in Roman characters by his _Horace_, and for the best printed book in
Greek characters by his _Iliad_; and in 1759 Professor Gerard again
won a prize by his dissertation on style.

This society, while it lasted, undoubtedly exercised a most beneficial
influence in developing and improving the industrial resources of
Scotland. The carpet manufacture alone rose L1000 in the year after
the establishment of the prizes, and the rise was believed to be due
to the stimulus they imparted. But, useful and active and celebrated
as it was, the Select Society died within ten years of its origin. The
usual explanation is that it owed its death to the effects of a
sarcasm of Charles Townshend's. Townshend was brought to hear one of
the wonderful debates, which were thought to reflect a new glory on
Edinburgh, and was even elected a member of the society, but he
observed when he came out that, while he admitted the eloquence of the
orators, he was unable to understand a word they said, inasmuch as
they spoke in what was to him a foreign tongue. "Why," he asked, "can
you not learn to speak the English language, as you have already
learnt to write it?"[88]

This was to touch Scotchmen of that period who made any pretensions to
education at one of their most sensitive parts. Scotch--the broad
dialect of Burns and Fergusson--was still the common medium of
intercourse in polite society, and might be heard even from the pulpit
or the bench, though English was flowing rapidly into fashion, and the
younger and mor