The government was going to recover much of its lost ground in the first months of 1861, when by hook and crook the ministerial party won a convincing success in the parliamentary elections. But although Cavour had relied heavily on a victory in parliament, this meeting of a new legislature was not automatically going to bring about the magical results he had expected. Soon afterwards, early in June 1861, Cavour died, still a comparatively young man and at the height of his powers. In the feverish activity of his last months he could never turn his attention properly to the southern question, and when he died he had still not found the time to consider in detail what other policy except a negative repression would serve to integrate these provinces into the old kingdom of Sardinia.

The unhappy state of the south was thus described by a former prime minister of Piedmont, Massimo d'Azeglio, in August 1861: