----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Interesting question. I don't know why the British usage adopts the infinitive, but linguistically I don't think it is as awkward as Barkley suggests. "Laisser faire" could also be translated as "to allow to be". And in French or Italian, infinitives also serve for what would be a gerund in English: "laisser faire" = "allowing to do" or "leaving [to] be". Grammatically speaking, a gerund is a noun, and it may be that the British usage has to do with scruples about how the expression is typically used grammatically: if one is referring to a philosophy of government or an ideological stance, one is referring to a noun. While we're on the topic, I can never decide whether I should hyphenate the expression or not. Gary ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]