[Tribute burdensome.] Notwithstanding the truth of what has been said with regard to the moderate rate of the tribute imposed on the native of the Philippine Islands, it would be extremely desirable if he could be altogether exonerated from a charge which he bears with great repugnance, by some other substitute being adopted, indirectly producing an equivalent compensation.  In the first place, because the just motives of complaint would cease, caused not only by the tribute, but also the manner of its collection; and an end would then be put to those intrigues and extortions the district magistrates commit, under the title of zealous collectors of the king’s revenue, and the power of a multitude of subaltern tyrants, comprehended under the denomination of chiefs of native clans (cabezas de barangay) would then also fall to the ground; a power which, if now employed for the purpose of oppressing and trampling on the liberties of inferiors, might some day or other be converted into an instrument dangerous and subversive of our preponderance in the country.  In the second place, if, among all the civilized nations a head-tax (poll-tax) is in itself odious, it must incontestably be much more so among those whose unlettered state, far from allowing them to know that the social order requires a certain class of sacrifices for its better preservation, makes them attribute exactions of this kind to an abuse of superiority.  Hence are they led to consider these restraints as the symbols of their own slavery and degradation, as in fact the natives in these Islands have ample reasons for doing, when the legal exemption of the whites is considered, without any other apparent reason than the difference in color.  Independent of this, the substitute above alluded to would be extremely expedient, inasmuch as it would greatly simplify the plan of administration, the accountant’s department would be freed from the most painful part of its labors, and the district magistrates and sub-collectors would not so frequently be entangled in their accounts, and exposed to expensive and interminable lawsuits, as now so often happens.

[Possible Revenue substitutes.] The difficulty, however, of finding out this compensation or substitute is a matter of some consideration.  On the one hand, if it was attempted to distribute the proceeds arising out of the tributes on other branches, such as tobacco, native wine, bonga, and custom house, it would, at first sight, appear possible, through the medium of an almost invisible augmentation in the respective sale prices and in the king’s duties, that this important object might easily be attained; but, on the other, it might be apprehended that the additional value put on the articles above-mentioned, would produce in their consumption a diminution equal to the difference in prices, in which cases no advantage would be gained.  The practicability of the operation, in my opinion, depends on the proportion in which the means of obtaining