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George Beckwith, a Royal Army intelligence officer, lurked in the shadows of Benedict Arnold's treason. Still operating in shadows, he reappeared in the United States five more times during the next ten years. His activities reflected Britain's disdain for the republic and a decade-long frustration resulting from an irksome foreign policy problem of its own creation. The British had ignored the formal diplomacy offered by John Adams and refused to send their own minister to New York. Yet the very existence of the United States menaced British interests in North America, a threat that could not be ignored. Forestalling such threats, real or imagined, forced the English government to rely on a checkered assortment of semi-official or semi-secret contacts to observe, influence, and manipulate American domestic and foreign affairs. Beckwith was one of these informal instruments of British diplomacy--certainly the most interesting, perhaps the most effective.' Beckwith remains, however, an enigmatic figure in histories about the early American republic. More often than not, he is mentioned only in a footnote. Recently a few scholars have attempted to examine his role more closely, generally to prove a point of

American annexation of the Philippines following the Spanish American War presented the United States with an unusual set of problems and challenges for which it had little experience and no preparation. Governing over seven million people almost seven thousand miles away would be difficult enough, but removing the vestiges of four centuries of Spanish colonialism would add enor mous unexpected complications. Inherent in these complications was the long tradition of administrative interrelationship and shared responsibilities between the Spanish colonial government and the Roman Catholic Church. For American authorities it was essential to end the relationship and separate church from state to assure the successful creation of a new Philippine government. The process of doing so would be delicate and detailed, requiring understanding, tact, and patience. To accomplish this formidable task President William McKinley chose as first civil governor a little known federal circuit judge from Ohio, William Howard Taft. It would be the most difficult assignment of Taft's long and distinguished career and one that caused him to reject a Supreme Court appointment— his most cherished ambition. Before he actually stepped on Philippine soil Taft had his first direct encounter with the complexities of the religious problem. Still aboard the transport that had brought him and his fellow members of the Second Philippine Commission from the United States, Taft met with Archbishop Placide L. Chapelle who pre sented him with an official statement of the position of the Catholic Church concerning the Philippine Islands. Chapelle, the archbish op of New Orleans, had been designated Apostolic Delegate to the Philippine Islands. The purpose of his embarrassingly early visit was to acquaint the commissioners with the most pressing problems confronting the church and to voice his own personal dissatisfaction