The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-09-30 00:00:00

A LORD CHIEF JUSTICE STABBED.

A telegram from Calcutta states that the Assistant
Chief Justice, Mr. J. P. Norman, was stabbed in two
'dares by an up canary native when entering the court.
His lordship died next day at a house near the court,
to which he was taken when wounded. Mn.. Norman
was present to the last. One wound was in the abdt.
men, and the other on the left shoulder, between the
spine and the bladebone. When struek he fell, but
recovered, anal ran, thoi stopped and flung a brick at
the unuslerer, .110 was promptly captured. The mur-
derer was examined, but made no defence. In reply
to a question, he said that, "earth is sunk below the
scoter, and the sues hare aone up to the sky ; the dog is
eating the wall." He is believed to be feigning mad-
ness. He bad ascertained previously at what time the
court °I wiled, anal waited on the steps until Mr. Justice
Norman arrived, when he struck him with a tapering
Ginarka knife. There seems nothing political in the
murder. 'There is no reason to suppose Wahabee-
ism has anything to do with the murder, anal
there is no apparent connection with the Punbab
murders It in rumoured that Mr. Justice NOrtnan
had decided a private suit against the murderer.

A later telegram from the Calcutta correspondent of
The Times says that facts have transpired leading to a
belief in the best informed quarters that the murderer
of Mr. Justice Norman is a Wahabee. A large num-
ber of his class left Calcutta for up country on the
night of the 'minter. Several arrests have been made.
The final trial of Anwar Khan is at band, an lit is
believed this crime had some connexion with that event.
The feeling of grief and sympathy is intense. The
funeral, at the public cost, was more impressive than
any ever remembered here. Every place of business
was closed, and every native housetop was crowded.
All the roasts to the cemetery were lined with people.
A short time before his death the Chief Justice said
the Lord's Prayer. The assassin it. a will ignorant
man, evidently an adept at murder. Either wound
would have caused death ;one was through the body
from the abdomen to the spine.

The Hon. J. P. Norman was in his 52ndyear, having ,
been born October 21, 1019. His father was the late
Mr. John Norman, of Iwood-house, Congreesbury,
and or Claverham, J. P., and deputy-lieutenant for
the county of Somerset ; and his mother, who is the
representative of the old border (aridly of Paxton, still
survives to mourn his loss, and resider with her son,
the Rev. A. M. Norman, rector of Burnmoor,
near Fence-houses. Mr. Norman was educated
at the Exeter Grammar School, and subse-
quently at Exeter College, Oxford, where he gra-
duated in 1841. After studying at the Temple he prac-
tised for many years WI a special pleader, but was called
to the liar in 100. He was the author of many legal
treatises and papers, the most important of his writings
being A Tr,atire on the Late an' Practice !Waring to
Letters Patent for In cent ions,anil the Exchequer Reports,
of which, jointly with Mr. Hurlstone, he was editor
for several years previously to his leaving Eng-
land. In May, 180, Mr. Norman, was appointed,
under I.ord john Renreeirs Administration, one of
, the Judges of the High Court of Bengal. In the
year 1864, when Sir Barnes Peacock was in England
he filled the I,ffiGV of Chief Justice, and again in
the present. year, during the absence of Sir R. Couch,
he acted in the same capacity. It must be a consola-
tion to his friends to feel that, terrible as were the cir-
cumstances attending his death, he died in the dis-
charge lof his duty, and that his death would seem to
have Leen a direct consequence of that duty. Mr.
Norman was married in Edinburgh, in 1854, to Mar-
garet, daughter of the late William Robinson, of
Hendon, and granddaughter of Ralph Robinson, of
Herrington-hall, near Sunderland.