carte blanche vs free hand

carte blanche

noun
  • A blank paper that is signed by some authority and given to a person to fill as he or she pleases. 

  • Unlimited discretionary power to act; unrestricted authority. 

adv
  • As an undifferentiated mass, without regard to distinctions; willy-nilly. (Possibly from confusion with another French phrase, en masse.) 

free hand

noun
  • Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see free, hand. 

  • free rein 

How often have the words carte blanche and free hand occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )