----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- Dear Friends, J. M. Keynes introduced the following episode in "The End of Laissez-Faire". "'Que faut-il pour vous aider?' asked Colbert, 'Nous laisser faire', answered Legendre." (JMK, vol. IX, p. 278. n. 1.) As far as I know, there is nothing wrong with this usage in French in the above anecdote.Of course, it is another problem whether we can justify a tendency to use this form instead of "laissez failre". Keynes mentioned the following well-known pamphlet by August Oncken, but I do not know whether or not his German was good enough to follow the details of the pamphlet: August Oncken, Die Maxime Laissez faire et laissez passer. Interestingly enough, the title uses the form "laissez faire".And it seems to me that Keynes mainly used the form "laissez-faire" in "The End of Laissez-Faire", including the title. I did not check his usage in other papers and monographs. Yukihiro Ikeda ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]