With the growth of the House of Burgesses its business more and more was transacted by committees. The most important were the committees on Propositions and Grievances, Elections and Privileges, and on Proportioning the Levy. To the first of these came all manner of complaints. One county asks that ship captains be forbidden to throw ballast into the rivers, another wants a ceiling put on doctors' bills, still another objects to having taverns extend credit to sailors. The House kept a close watch on elections, and the Committee on Elections and Privileges always went over the writs in search of irregularities. If a sheriff should fail to make a return or should make an imperfect return, the messenger was sent to bring him before the House to explain why. Should he take it upon himself to judge who was eligible or not eligible for election, he was certain to receive a stern reprimand. In 1692 a resolution "that the House of Burgesses are the sole and only judges of the capacity or incapacity of their own members" passed unanimously.[23] The Committee on Private Causes prior to 1680 was in effect the supreme court of Virginia, to which appeals were made, for the House invariably accepted its findings. But it ceased to function when the Assembly was deprived of its judicial power. The Burgesses were wary of bills of attainder, the weapon used with such great effect by Parliament. They realized the danger in condemning persons without trial, especially when the colony had so much at stake in preserving liberty and justice. But the Assembly of February, 1677, which had been "hand picked" by Governor Berkeley, did attaint Bacon and fifteen of his followers in defiance of the King's pardon.[24] Since all of the victims were dead, the attaint affected only their property. When Charles II heard what had been done, he promptly nullified the law.[25] The Burgesses were well aware from the first that the universally accepted principle that no Englishman could be legally taxed without his own consent was the basis of liberty. They alone, as the representatives of the people, could take their property. If a Governor, as the substitute for the King, so far stretched his authority as to attempt to lay a levy, they were quick to call him to order. As early as 1624 the Assembly passed a law "that the Governor shall not lay any taxes or impositions upon the colony, their lands or commodities, other way than by the authority of the General Assembly, to be levied and imployed as the said Assembly shall appoint."[26] Similar laws were passed in 1631, 1632, 1642, and 1645.