[22] A contract was made between the administrator of the estate in
question, situated at Calamba, and Francisco Mercado Rizal, father of
the subject of this note, for the land the Rizal family occupied and
cultivated. This land measured some 500 hectares and was clear and
clean, the tenant having merely to give it three or four turns with
the plow in order to prepare it for use. To show the treatment meted
out to the tenant, it will be sufficient to say that the contract
agreed that the tenant should have the entire use of the land and
its product for four harvests or five years RENT FREE. As great as
this advantage was to the Rizal family it is but a little of what
was done by the Dominicans for that ungrateful family of filibusters.
[23] Lawyer.
[24] "La Independencia" was a revolutionary daily of four pages,
published in the Orphan Asylum of Malabon, property of the Augustinian
Corporation and stolen and eventually totally destroyed by the "ever
destructive" Tagalog rebels during the revolution. The first number
was published on Saturday, 3rd Sept. 1898. Its leading article is
an exposition of the purpose of the publication of the paper, which
was the defense of the independence of the Philippines. "We defend,
says the writer of the article, the independence of the Philippines
because it is the aspiration of the country which has come of age;
and when a people rise as a man to protest, arm in hand, against a
policy of oppression and injustice, it manifests sufficient vitality
to live free." This is a fair sample of the style of the conduct of the
paper. It is worthy of note that the history of the revolt has clearly
shown that, in the first place, independence was not the aspiration of
the people, but a fanciful hope of a handful of exploiters; secondly
that the country has not come of age, not having even reached the age
of puberty; thirdly that the people did not rise as a man but that the
Tagal "discontents" were the body and soul of the whole insurrection
both against Spain and against the U. S.; and finally, that the "policy
of oppression and injustice" was imaginary, the same complaint having
since been made against the Government of Washington as was then made
against the Government of Madrid. The quotation concerning Luna is
taken from No. 2 of the paper published on the 5th of Sept. 1898.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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