THE STRENGTH OF THE FRENCH ARMY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XX, Issue 1429, 15 February 1888, Page 4

THE STRENGTH OF THE FRENCH ARMY.

The grand French total shows, on paper, a force of 640,000 odd more men than the Germans — the German total being 2,075,000, the French, 2,721-000. [f a great leader cipable of awakening the enthusiasm of the French should arise, there is of course no calculating what influence that fact might have on the future war ; but that at present the general temper of the French Army, and more especially of the territory army, represents the same high condition as the German, we cannot persuade ourselves. Probably the territorial army is now better in hand than were those Gardes Mobiles who surprised M'Mahon by demanding to bo scut back to Paris instead of towards Berlin ; bub with such an enormous operation to be carried out, as is represented by the mobilisation, the very numbers that will come to hand must depend on the discipline of men scattered all over the .country. We cannot satisfy ourselves that the indications are that the discipline of the French Army is in a satisfactory condition. That with such elaborate preparations as the French have made, the war would be a very different one to that of 1870, we have no doubt ; but that at present the German Army would still be able to give a good account to the French we feel tolerably certain. The element of selfconfidence, so necessary to the French, which made the French Guards, always accustomed to victory, go forward with such power during the 1870 campaign, has disappeared. The French are always talking to persuade themselves that they are as good as, or better than the Germans. The talk sounds hollow. It has not the ring whic'.i presages victory. The Germans have acquired a calm confidence which they did not possess at the beginning of 1870.— From " The Balance of Military Power in Europe," in " Blackwood's Magazine."