Three European Great Powers were more closely affected than others by the Eastern question--Russia, by reason of her office as guardian of the Eastern Church, as well as by her hereditary policy of absorbing neighbouring territories--Austria, on account of her claim to the Danubian provinces of the Porte--and England, because she could not suffer the advance of Russia between her and her Asiatic dominions. The interest of England may seem to have been less direct than that of the other Powers; nevertheless, the continual encroachment of Russia in Asia, and the steady extension of the Russian frontier towards that of British North-West India, had so powerfully impressed British statesmen with the danger of a collision in that quarter, that the integrity of the Ottoman Empire had become a cardinal principle in the Continental diplomacy of England. [Illustration: THE LARGEST GUN OF 1897. The huge 110-ton guns of Sir W. G. Armstrong, Mitchell, & Co. are mounted in the _Sanspareil_ and _Benbow_, and the _Victoria_ carried two of them to the bottom when she sank. There are considerable disadvantages attaching to the use of artillery so enormous, as will be understood when it is stated that the cost of each round fired with full charge and armour-piercing projectile is £200; that the gun would become practically useless after firing 75 rounds of this description (of course a much smaller charge is used when practising); and that the energy developed amounts to 60,000 foot-tons--about enough to lift the whole ship six feet in the air. For these and other reasons the 67-ton gun shown on next page is now being supplied in preference to the larger one. The 110 ton gun is capable of piercing a solid mass of wrought iron 30-1/2 inches thick, at a distance of 1,000 yards; the much smaller 9·2-inch (22-ton) gun was tested in 1887, and threw a shot nearly 12 miles, its trajectory rising to a height greater, by 2,000 feet, than that of Mont Blanc.] [Sidenote: Projects of the Emperor Nicholas.]