Cavour's first speech to parliament, moderate in phraseology but uncompromising in tone, was known in Sicily on 9 October, a week late, and' was published in the newspapers of Palermo on the 10th. This was the first time Cavour had pronounced so outspokenly on the affairs of southern Italy, and the fact that he was speaking ex officio made his challenge to the revolution even more startling. It remained to see what effect this would have on Mordini, and whether the prodictatorial government would surrender quietly and without making further trouble.

Several communications sent to Sicily from the north give us some idea of early reactions against what Cavour had said. The Genoese correspondent of the Palermo L'Assembled thus wrote a letter from the point of view of an autonomist, full of astonishment at Cavour's volte face, and giving his explanation of the reasons for it. The prime minister had formerly assured him many times, and in the presence of Count Amari, that Sicily had a just title to self-government. They had pointed out to Cavour how, even in the worst days of Neapolitan domination, Sicily had never been deprived of her supreme court, or of her distinct financial system with its separate treasury and national debt. But if she were now to be merged in with the rest of Italy, these old privileges would be threatened. Under a centralized system she would be less free than before; and there would be the added disadvantage that, instead of the capital city being twelve to fourteen hours distant at Naples, it would lie half-way across Europe in remote Turin.