The principles of the French Revolution, generating dangerous and violent forces, and threatening Christendom with anarchy and destruction, were at length laid low, and, to outward appearances at least, they were finally crushed and eradicated. The victory rested with England, to whose indomitable energy, national power, and vast financial resources, the result of the gigantic contest had been due. And as men who have conquered in a desperate struggle, to rest and refreshment as the fruit of their labours, so did Great Britain indulge in the expectation that, the enemy being vanquished, she would at once be compensated for her innumerable sacrifices by the quiet and unalloyed enjoyment of the rewards of her valour. Nor was this an extravagant hope. Even during the war, while the people were oppressed by a crushing taxation, and when the country was in the very throes of an exhausting and terrible conflict, England, thanks to her commanding maritime supremacy, that alone endowed her with extraordinary strength, advanced steadily in riches and in population.[126] It may, then, be readily conceived that, if such was the case in the hour of darkness, the nation had cause to look forward with confidence, to a rapidly accelerating progress in material prosperity, as soon as the millennium of a general peace should dawn upon the civilized world. But anticipations are frequently disappointed, and in this case they were not immediately realized. The cessation of hostilities, instead of heralding an era of plenty, was the signal of much misery and distress, which cast a dark shadow over the last few years of the reign of George III., and chastened the rejoicings that followed the successful termination of the greatest war of modern times. ----- Footnote 126: The exports, which in 1792 were valued at £27,000,000, amounted to nearly £58,000,000 in 1815; imports rose from £19,000,000 to £32,000,000 between those years; the shipping advanced from 1,000,000 to 2,500,000 tons; and the population of the three kingdoms, from 14,000,000 to 18,000,000 souls (Alison, _History of Europe_ , 1815-1852, i. 79). -----