Once Cavour had reached the decision—with whatever justice—that he would gain nothing from an alliance with the revolutionary forces, once he no longer needed Garibaldi as a stalking-horse, it was natural that he should do his utmost to crush the revolution everywhere. In the north his army was gradually moving into position, ready to repel the ‘unprovoked aggression’ from Papal mercenaries which he had timed to take place on 8 September. In the south he continued with added vigour his attempt to coax or coerce the Sicilian government into holding an immediate plebiscite. It was his hope that the concert of Europe would consider such a popular vote to be a valid excuse for adding yet another province to his master's kingdom.

For three months now Cavour had been trying to engineer this plebiscite. He had first employed La Farina as his instrument, with lamentable results. Then he had hoped to achieve something by the more refined methods of the tactful Depretis, only to find him too scrupulous in respecting Garibaldi's wishes to make any overt move. So he next turned to another less scrupulous official of Garibaldi's, and tried out Cordova's scheme of promoting a big propaganda campaign all through the provinces, to work up the appearance or the reality of a popular agitation which might be used to force Depretis to take sides. Towards the end of August he decided to send in reinforcement a Turin newspaper editor, Giovanni Bottero, to present Depretis with an actual ultimatum.