The speakers banged their staffs on the floor and called the session to order. Several delegates explained the importance of the new constitution. The document hailed: “We publish and proclaim a perfect and entire liberty to all people.”60 It was not a strict democracy because it preserved the dominance of the aristocracy. The compromise mostly benefited the burghers, opening the door for them to buy land and become members of the gentry.61 It also provided them with neminem captivabimus, a form of habeas corpus to protect against arbitrary arrest.62 While the new laws offered less for the
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May 3 1791
