My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty . . . it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

The speaker claims that adding people to a duty can make it less effectively performed when one capable person would suffice. The progression from one to three sharpens the complaint. One reading questions the assumption that more participants necessarily mean more useful work.

Context reviewed 20 September 2026