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… is from page 514 of the 1988 collection of Lord Acton’s writings (edited by the late J. Rufus Fears), Essays in Religion, Politics, and Morality [2]; specifically, it’s a note from March 30th, 1867, drawn from Acton’s extensive papers at Cambridge University:
It is possible to lose the end in a too technical regard to the means, and to sacrifice liberty by an exaggerated devotion to the forms of law.