promote,
extend and improve the system of education already inaugurated by
the military authorities, giving first importance to the extension
of a system of primary education free to all, which would tend to fit
the people for the duties of citizenship and the ordinary avocations
of a civilized community. Instruction was to be given at first in
the native dialects, but full opportunity for all of the people to
acquire English was to be provided as soon as possible. If necessity
demanded, we were authorized to make changes in the existing system
of taxation and in the body of the laws under which the people were
governed, although such changes were to be relegated to the civil
government which we were to establish later, so far as might be. Our
instructions contained the following important passages:--

"In all the forms of government and administrative provisions which
they are authorized to prescribe, the commission should bear in
mind that the government which they are establishing is designed
not for our satisfaction, or for the expression of our theoretical
views, but for the happiness, peace and prosperity of the people of
the Philippine Islands, and the measures adopted should be made to
conform to their customs, their habits, and even their prejudices,
to the fullest extent consistent with the accomplishment of the
indispensable requisites of just and effective government.

"At the same time the commission should bear in mind, and the people
of the islands should be made plainly to understand, that there are
certain great principles of government which have been made the basis
of our governmental system which we deem essential to the rule of law
and the maintenance of individual freedom, and of which they have,
unfortunately, been denied the experience possessed by us; that there
are also certain practical rules of government which we have found to
be essential to the preservation of these great principles of liberty
and law, and that these principles and these rules of government
must be established and maintained in their islands for the sake of
their liberty and happiness, however much they may conflict with the
customs or laws of procedure with which they are familiar.

"It is evident that the most enlightened thought of the Philippine
Islands fully appreciates the importance of these principles and
rules, and they will inevitably within a short time command universal
assent. Upon every division and branch