128 LIFE OF BABT7 SUBENDRA NATH BAHEBJBE. CHAPTER III. THE GREAT CONTEMPT CASE IN 1883. "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a. cage; Minds innocent and quiet take That for a hermitage.* Lovelace. Carlyle said that the greatest man is he who can bear the heaviest weight of misfortune without stag- gering. And it was the lot of Babu Surendra Nath to be placed in a serious dilemma in his journalistic career, and what was ostensibly meant to cover him with shame and ignominy proved a blessing to him and shed a lustre around his life. He passed through the fiery ordeal triumphing over his difficulties, and earned a world-wide renown undreamt by those who meant otherwise. It was on the memorable 28th April 1883, Babu Surendra Nath wrote an editorial note in his; Bengalee newspaper, on the authority of the now de- funct hebdomadal the Brahma Public Opinion, criti- cizing the conduct of the Hon'ble Justice John Free- mantle Norris, a puisne Judge of the Calcutta High Court in connexion with a case in which a Hindu idol (Saligram) was brought into Court The Brahma Public Opinion being then conducted by a Native Attorney of the High Court, Babu Surendra Nath naturally believed, as was afterwards stated in his affidavit, that the statement contained in that journal was true ; and as no contradiction appeared in any of the newspapers in regard to its authenticity, he as a Journalist naturally felt indignant, and in the interest of public good and with the purest of motives wrote as follows "We have now, however, amongst us a Judge, who, if he does not actually recall to mind the days of Jeffreys and Scroggs,
