The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1871-09-30 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

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 murderer 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 madness. 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 Wahabeeism 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 number 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 subsequently at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1841. After studying at the Temple he practised 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 England. 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 consolation to his friends to feel that, terrible as were the circumstances attending his death, he died in the discharge 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 Margaret, daughter of the late William Robinson, of Hendon, and granddaughter of Ralph Robinson, of Herrington-hall, near Sunderland.