Alexander I of Russia confirms the privileges…
September 1801 CE
The Treaty of Vilnius of 1561 had included the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti by which Sigismund II Augustus had guaranteed the Livonian estates several privileges, including religious freedom with respect to the Augsburg Confession, the Indigenat (Polish: Indygenat), and continuation of the traditional German jurisdiction and administration.
The terms regarding religious freedom forbade any regulation of the traditional Protestant order by religious or secular authorities, and ruled that cases of disagreements be judged only by Protestant scholars.
When in 1710 Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Russia during the Great Northern War, the capitulations had explicitly referred to the Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti, with the respective references being confirmed in the Treaty of Nystad (1721).
The dominions of Swedish Estonia (in what is now northern Estonia) and Swedish Livonia (in what is now southern Estonia and northern Latvia) became the governorates of Reval and Riga, when they were conquered by Russia in during the Great Northern War, and had been ceded by Sweden in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721
Notably, both Reval Governorate and Riga Governorate were each at the time subdivided into one province only: the province of Estonia and the province of Livonia, respectively.
The Regent's (later Governor-General's) Office in Riga, created in the period of the so-called Regency, 1783–1796, had consisted of two subdivisions dealing with local matters and Russian affairs.
After an administrative reform in 1796, the Reval Governorate had been renamed Governorate of Estland, and Riga Governorate renamed Governorate of Livland.
The third Baltic province of Courland had been annexed into Russian Empire after the third partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795.
The Baltic Governor-General, who is the representative of the Russian Emperor in the provinces of Livland, Estland and Courland, is appointed by the Emperor and is subject to the latter as well as to the Senate.
His duties are regulated by laws and instructions from central authorities.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century he acts as an intermediate between the ministries in Saint Petersburg and administration of the Baltic governorates on spot.
The Governor-General, the highest local executive official and military authority, is in charge of the internal order in the provinces and has to take care of their overall security.
He is in charge of recruiting troops and has to keep an eye on the garrisons and fortifications.
His civil duties include supervising the provincial administration and prisons, maintaining roads and bridges, issuing passports, and overseeing collection of state taxes and customs duties.
He appoints and dismisses higher officials.