y his Government to visit Rome on his way back to the Islands in
order to negotiate the question of the friars' lands with the Holy
See. The instructions issued to him by the Secretary of War contain
the following paragraphs, namely [275]:--

One of the controlling principles of our Government is the complete
separation of Church and State, with the entire freedom of each
from any control or interference by the other. This principle is
imperative wherever American jurisdiction extends, and no modification
or shading thereof can be a subject of discussion. . . . By reason of
the separation, the Religious Orders can no longer perform, in behalf
of the State, the duties in relation to public instruction and public
charities formerly resting upon them. . . . They find themselves the
object of such hostility on the part of their tenantry against them
as landlords, and on the part of the people of the parishes against
them as representatives of the former Government, that they are no
longer capable of serving any useful purpose for the Church. No rents
can be collected from the populous communities occupying their lands,
unless it be by the intervention of the civil government with armed
force. Speaking generally, for several years past the friars, formerly
installed over the parishes, have been unable to remain at their posts,
and are collected in Manila with the vain hope of returning. They
will not be voluntarily accepted again by the people, and cannot be
restored to their positions except by forcible intervention on the
part of the civil government, which the principles of our Government
forbid....It is for the interest of the Church, as well as for the
State, that the landed proprietorship of the Religious Orders in the
Philippine Islands should cease, and that if the Church wishes...to
continue its ministration among the people of the Islands...it should
seek other agents therefor. It is the wish of our Government, in
case Congress shall grant authority, that the titles of the Religious
Orders to the large tracts of agricultural lands which they now hold
shall be extinguished, but that full and fair compensation shall be
made therefor. It is not, however, deemed to be for the interests
of the people of the Philippine Islands that...a fund should thereby
be created to be used for the attempted restoration of the friars to
the parishes from which they are now separated, with the consequent
disturbance of law and order. Y