Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės bajorijos požiūris į miestų problemą ketverių metų seimo laikais (1788-1792)

Abstract

On the eve of the reforms of the four-year Seimas, the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania did not attach too much importance to towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and their citizens. According to the 1788 instructions of the “lower houses” (seimeliai) of the nobles to their deputies to the Seimas, the greatest attention was focused on the affairs of the nobles and the state that they governed. The situation changed after the congresses of citizens were organised by the Magistrate of Old Warsaw in which delegates of the citizens of the Republic presented general requests and requirements to the Seimas and the King. This event met with a reaction from the nobility. In 1790, the instructions of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania contained requirements not to allow the citizens to take part in the legislative power and not to extend their rights and freedoms. At the Seimas the envoys of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were divided into the supporters and opponents of the reforms. The opponents of the city reforms were against allowing granting the citizens rights to acquire a land estate. The supporters of the reforms regarded the possibility of bringing foreigners to the country as an important precondition for strengthening the cities, and granting more rights to the citizens built up their hopes that the ranks of the defenders of statehood would increase. I. Potockis, K.N. Sapiega, J. Chreptavičius together with the Polish initiators of the reforms strongly urged the Seimas to extend the citizens’ rights and contributed to the adoption of the Law on Towns at the Seimas on 18 April 1791.[...]