elanya

There isn't any one good reason that I am posing this quote to LJ, other than it came to mind, and I like it. And the 'dangled like polecats' turned up no google results, and i thought that i ought to fix that.

Your northern party have of late year wholly taken of the prejudices and scandal of privateers and pirates this island lay under, for we have had none of it a long time, and indeed 'tis a pity they should be connived at anywhere, they being a vermin in a commonweal, and ought to be dangled like polecats and weasels in a warren. I am therefore pleased to hear your Excellency is so zealous in the detecting of them.

William Beeston, Governor of Jamaica, to the the Earl of Bellomont, then Governor of New York, June 7, 1699.