HC Deb 13 July 1842 vol 65 c84
Sir R. Peel

wished to state publicly now, what he had omitted to state publicly the night before. He bad informed the House that the Government, after conferring with the judges and the law officers of the Crown, had felt it to be their duty, on the principles on which justice and the prerogative of mercy were at once administered, to spare the life of the convict Francis; but he should have stated, at the same time, that the sentence had been commuted into transportation for life, and that the convict was on his way to that penal colony where the labour is most severe, and where there are the least opportunities for convicts to have indulgences.