THE END OF LAISSEZ-FAIRE

leaving trade alone. To govern better, hesaid, one must govern less . 1 The true causeof the decline of our manufactures, he declared,is the protection we have given to them . 2“Laissez faire, telle devrait etre la devise detoute puissance publique, depuis que lemonde est civilise.” “Detestable principeque celui de ne vouloir notre grandeur quepar l’abaissement de nos voisins! II n’y aque la mechancete et la malignite du coeurde satisfaites dans ce principe, et l’interet yest oppose. Laissez faire, morbleu! Laissezfaire!!”

Here we have the economic doctrine oflaissez-faire, with its most fervent expressionin Free Trade, fully clothed. The phrasesand the idea must have passed current in Paris from that time on. But they were slow toestablish themselves in Literature; and thetradition associating with them the Physio-crats, and particularly de Gournay and

1 “ Pour gouverner mieux, il faudrait gouverner moins.”

2 “ On ne peut dire autant de nos fabriques : la vraiecause de leur declin, c’est la protection outree qu’on leuraccorde.”

l 9