The expulsion of La Farina had come as a sharp shock to Cavour in Turin. It had also of course upset the party in Sicily which had been organized to campaign for immediate annexation. Many of the moderates, including people who knew La Farina to be unpopular and thought he should have returned home earlier on his own or on Cavour's initiative, still regretted the arrest and ignominious banishment of a Sicilian patriot. Nevertheless, even among those who disliked what had happened, the matter was passed over in silence, and there was apparently no disturbance to public quiet or to Garibaldi's prestige. Most people in Sicily were probably content to believe that the dictator had good reasons for what he had done, and were glad that the national party in Sicily would no longer be so publicly riven in two factions. Some days afterwards Garibaldi changed the composition of his ministry, but the inclusion of moderate ‘Cavourians’ like Professor Amari testified to the continuity and essential moderation of the dictator's policy.

Evidently La Farina had exaggerated in report as well as exacerbated in person the political divisions which he had found in Palermo. On his return to the north he published a statement to the effect that three hundred townships in Sicily had sent in petitions for prompt annexation; yet only a handful of these petitions have so far been traced. Annoyed though Garibaldi must have been by the evidence of La Farina's intrigues, he did not let this annoyance deflect him from the moderate programme which Crispi had outlined in May and June.