We remember the Alabama and our English enemies, we forget Bright, and
Cobden, and all our English friends; but Lincoln did not forget them.
When a young man, a friend of Bright's, an Englishman, had been caught
here in a plot to seize a vessel and make her into another Alabama, John
Bright asked mercy for him; and here are Lincoln's words in consequence:
"whereas one Rubery was convicted on or about the twelfth day of October,
1863, in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of
California, of engaging in, and giving aid and comfort to the existing
rebellion against the Government of this Country, and sentenced to ten
years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of ten thousand dollars;

"And whereas, the said Alfred Rubery is of the immature age of twenty
years, and of highly respectable parentage;

"And whereas, the said Alfred Rubery is a subject of Great Britain, and
his pardon is desired by John Bright, of England;

"Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the
United States of America, these and divers other considerations me
thereunto moving, and especially as a public mark of the esteem held by
the United States of America for the high character and steady friendship
of the said John Bright, do hereby grant a pardon to the said Alfred
Rubery, the same to begin and take effect on the twentieth day of January
1864, on condition that he leave the country within thirty days from and
after that date."

Thus Lincoln, because of Bright; and because of a word from Bright to
Charles Sumner about the starving cotton-spinners, Americans sent from
New York three ships with flour for those faithful English friends of