At this time, early in 1811, Lieutenant-Governor Gore was contemplating a visit to England, and there was some correspondence between him and General Brock about the location of a grant of five thousand acres of land that had been made some years before to Colonel Vesey. Brock had promised the latter to arrange about it before the lieutenant-governor left Canada, and wrote that there were tracts of excellent land on Lake Erie belonging to the Crown, and also that a new township was being surveyed near the head of Lake Ontario, either of which situations would be eligible. The {139} lieutenant-governor replied that it was not in his power to comply with Colonel Vesey's wish in respect of location without a special order from the king, as in the case of Colonel Talbot, and that it was impossible in any township to obtain five thousand acres in a block. The lieutenant-governor remarked in his letter that he thought President Madison's address very hostile to England, but that congress would hesitate before consenting to go the length he proposes. "Taking forcible possession of West Florida may provoke a war sooner than any other act. It is impossible to foresee how this may be viewed by the Cortez." [Sidenote: West Florida] As to Florida, a convention of American citizens settled near the borders of West Florida, had attacked the Spanish fort at Bâton Rouge, and announced that country to be a free and independent state. The leader of the convention then wrote to the secretary of state, urging that it should be annexed to the United States, but claiming all public lands for themselves. In reply the president sent a sharp message to the revolutionary convention saying that their independence was an impertinence and their design on public lands something worse. He also issued a proclamation announcing that Governor Claiborne would take possession of West Florida. The military occupation of the country was, in fact, an act of war against Spain, but that kingdom which had once held sway {140} over two American continents, from the sources of the Missouri and the Mississippi, to the borders of Patagonia, was powerless to resist.[2] Letters of this date speak of the awful suspense felt in England while the armies of Wellington and Massena were in such close proximity, and the latter was advancing on the lines of Torres Vedras to drive the English army into the sea. They speak, too, of the sad illness of the old king, who after the death of the Princess Amelia had relapsed into hopeless insanity. Brock writes, "If we are to be governed by a regent I trust that ambition, jealousy or party interests, will not conspire to diminish or circumscribe his regal powers." He writes to his brother, Irving Brock, that he had seen "Thoughts on Political Transactions," in answer to his admirable pamphlet, and remarks that the author appears to proclaim his servile attachment to Bonaparte without in any way refuting his (Irving's) arguments.