It was prophetic of what was to come that Secretary Coventry, in January, 1678, read to the Committee on Foreign Affairs a series of proposals concerning Virginia. Three companies of soldiers were to be left in the colony, a fort was to be erected "whereby the King may be safe from rebellions," all laws were to be sent to England for revision. The last proposal was an innovation of serious import.[43] The Virginians had never questioned the right of the King to veto the acts of Assembly, but never before had he demanded the right to revise laws already on the statute books. Of even greater significance was the initiation of bills by the King. Charles wrote Culpeper that whereas certain laws had been recommended to him in Council of which he approved, "these bills we have caused to be under the Great Seal of England, and our will is that the same bills ... you shall cause to be considered ... in our Assembly of Virginia ... and to these bills you do give and declare our royal assent." One was an act of general pardon, one an act for naturalization, and the other an act for raising a public revenue.[44] This was accompanied by an attempt to deprive the Assembly of the right to initiate legislation. Culpeper was commanded to send to the King a draft of such bills as he and the Council should think fit to be passed, so that he could go over them and return them in the form he thought they should be enacted in. "Upon receipt of our commands you shall summon an Assembly and propose the said laws for their consent."[45] As though this were not enough, Charles demanded the sole power, heretofore exercised by the Governor, of calling sessions of the Assembly. "It is our will and pleasure that for the future no General Assembly be called without our special directions, but that, upon occasion, you do acquaint us by letter with the necessity of calling such an Assembly, and pray our consent and directions for their meeting."[46] The King struck a fatal blow at the control of justice in Virginia by the people, by depriving the Assembly of its privilege of acting as the supreme court of appeals. "Our pleasure also is that for the better and more equitable administration of justice in our said colony, appeals be allowed in cases of error from the courts ... to our Governor and our Council there, and to no other court or jurisdiction whatsoever."[47]