For a few days after Mordini made his decision of 5 October, Sicilian politicians were able to continue within the bounds of their closed world, little regarding and little able to regard the course of events at Turin and Naples. The difficulty of communication was such that, although Cavour in the north knew on the 6th about Mordini's decree of the day before, people in Sicily did not know for a full week about Cavour's speech of the 2nd to parliament. During this week, owing to their ignorance of Cavour's attitude, even the most conservative daily papers at Palermo had no major disagreement with Mordini's new statement of policy, and people were content to know that a Sicilian assembly would soon be meeting. The position was described on the 9th by consul Goodwin to Lord John Russell—Lord John being now a convert to united Italy, but Goodwin still sharing some of the autonomist sentiments he found about him in Palermo.

By itself this would be too partisan a testimony to carry much assurance.