cost, and the items noted in
the margin of her funeral record make a total which in those days was
a considerable sum. Domingo outlived Mrs. Lam-co by but a few years,
and he also had, for the time, an expensive funeral.

CHAPTER III

Liberalizing Hereditary Influences

The hope of the Binan landlords that by changing from Filipino to
Chinese tenantry they could avoid further litigation seems to have
been disappointed. A family tradition of Francisco Mercado tells of
a tedious and costly lawsuit with the Order. Its details and merits
are no longer remembered, and they are not important.

History has recorded enough agrarian trouble, in all ages and in all
countries, to prove the economic mistake of large holdings of land by
those who do not cultivate it. Human nature is alike the world over,
it does not change with the centuries, and just as the Filipinos
had done, the Chinese at last obiected to paying increased rent for
improvements which they made themselves.

A Spanish iudge required the landlords to produce their deeds, and,
after measuring the land, he decided that they were then taking rent
for considerably more than they had originally bought or had been
given. But the tenants lost on the appeal, and, as they thought it
was because they were weak and their opponents powerful, a grievance
grew up which was still remembered in Rizal's day and was well known
and understood by him.

Another cause of discontent, which was a liberalizing influence,
was making itself felt in the Philippines about the time of Domingo's
death. A number of Spaniards had been claiming for their own countrymen
such safeguards of personal liberty as were enjoyed by Englishmen,
for no other government in Europe then paid any attention to the rights
of the individual. Learned men had devoted much study to the laws and
rights of nations, but these Spanish Liberals insisted that it was the
guarantees given to the citizens, and not the political independence
of the State, that made a country really free. Unfortunately, just
as their proposals began to gain followers, Spain became involved in
war with England, because the Spanish King, then as now a Bourbon
and so related to a number of other reactionary rulers, had united
in the family compact by which the royal relatives were to stamp out
liberal ideas in their own dominions, and as allies to crush England,
the source of the dissatisfaction which threatened their thrones.

Many