CHAPTER VI.
THE POSITION OF FRANCE The Iron Hand of War--Paris offered in Sacrifice--Faulty Mobilization--The French Army--The Joffre Strategy--The German Retreat.
The position of France to-day cannot be compared with that of any other country in the war.

The French people have a distinctive genius all their own.

They are still the greatest people in art in the world.
Nothing in sculpture or painting in the outside world yet rivals the skill of France.

Politically the French are trusting children, vibrating between empires and republics, and following only the rule of success.

In finance they were accounted great a generation ago.