It seems unlikely that in 1874 anyone had more cause to speculate as to the future working of the Act than those Taunton men, the Assistant Commissioners, who were now to have new masters, and the women's interest which owed so much to the warm commitment of the old ones. Would there be a drastic change or not? The extent of one change was barely foreseen, and that was the total difference in time-scale between the work of the two Commissions. When the Endowed Schools Commissioners were censured for having made so little headway with their task Lyttelton had warned that it was unrealistic to expect it to be finished in another five years, especially as in future only two Commissioners were to be engaged on the work full time. In the end it took nearly thirty; or to be precise, the Charity Commissioners carried it on until 1903, the ‘temporary’ nature of their powers marked quaintly by the need for annual renewal under the Expiring Laws Continuance Act.