fancier and especially prided himself
upon his fine stock of turkeys. He had been accustomed to respond to
the frequent requests of the estate agent for presents of birds. But
at one time disease had so reduced the number of turkeys that all that
remained were needed for breeding purposes and Mercado was obliged
to refuse him. In a rage the agent insisted, and when that proved
unavailing, threats followed.

But Francisco Mercado was not a man to be moved by threats, and
when the next rent day came round he was notified that his rent had
been doubled. This was paid without protest, for the tenants were
entirely at the mercy of the landlords, no fixed rate appearing
either in contracts or receipts. Then the rent-raising was kept on
till Mercado was driven to seek the protection of the courts. Part
of his case led to exactly the same situation as that of the Binan
tenantry in his grandfather's time, when the landlords were compelled
to produce their title-deeds, and these proved that land of others
had been illegally included in the estate. Other tenants, emboldened
by Mercado's example also refused to pay the exorbitant rent increases.

The justice of the peace of Kalamba, before whom the case first came,
was threatened by the provincial governor for taking time to hear the
testimony, and the case was turned over to the auxiliary justice, who
promptly decided in the manner desired by the authorities. Mercado at
once took an appeal, but the venal Weyler moved a force of artillery
to Kalamba and quartered it upon the town as if rebellion openly
existed there. Then the court representatives evicted the people
from their homes and directed them to remove all their buildings
from the estate lands within twenty-four hours. In answer to the
plea that they had appealed to the Supreme Court the tenants were
told their houses could be brought back again if they won their
appeal. Of course this was impossible and some 150,000 pesos' worth
of property was consequently destroyed by the court agents, who were
worthy estate employees. Twenty or more families were made homeless
and the other tenants were forbidden to shelter them under pain of
their own eviction. This is the proceeding in which Retana suggests
that the governor-general and the landlords were legally within their
rights. If so, Spanish law was a disgrace to the nation. Fortunately
the Rizal-Mercado family had another piece of property at Los Banos,
and there they made