over-frugal

Updated: May 28, 2025

One source of evil pointed out by contemporaries had been the absence of any central power which could regulate and systematise the action of the petty local bodies. The very possibility of such organisation, however, seems to have been simply inconceivable. When the local bodies became lavish instead of over-frugal, the one remedy suggested was to abolish the system altogether. Works, i. 255.

Leslie Stephen - The English Utilitarians, Volume I.