Idk if it's really worth "explaining", but if you read the letter where the quote occurs (#1) you'll see the pt he's making: http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/acton-acton-creighton-correspondence …
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Seems to me he's talking about popes and kings, not subordinate office-holders. I would like your interpretation better, but I'm not able to read it that way.
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It's true his main argument is about how to judge individuals in historical writing, but the claim about "corruption" is additional to that.
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Right: it's an empirical hypothesis to back up his claim. If the more powerful do more naughty things, a fortiori it is possible for them to do naughty things But he's comparing William III to a gov't clerk, not Louis XIV to William III
End of conversation
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