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… is from an 1835 “Minute” on India written by Thomas Babington Macaulay; it is quoted on page 322 of John Clive’s magnificent 1973 biography of Macaulay [2]:
A government cannot be wrong in punishing fraud or force, but it is almost certain to be wrong if, abandoning its legitimate function, it tells private individuals that it knows their business better than they know it themselves.