Arkansas Reports, 384; State _v._ Shepherd, 177 Missouri
Reports, 205; 76 Southwestern Reporter, 79; _Ex parte_
Robinson, 19 Wallace's Reports, 505, 510.]

The accused is not entitled as of right to a trial by jury. The
judge is the best guardian of the dignity of the court.[Footnote:
_In re_ Debs, 158 U. S. Reports, 564, 595.]

The rule of criminal law that to convict a man of crime requires
proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt applies to all
proceedings of contempt. The accused is also allowed to go free
on giving bail until final sentence, if that is to be preceded by
any preliminary inquiry involving adjournments from day to day.
No such inquiry is necessary when the contempt is plain and was
committed in the presence of the court.

In the courts of the United States and in most of the States no
appeal is allowed for errors in law from a summary sentence of
punishment for a contempt of court. Appeals lie only from final
judgments in a cause, and such a sentence for contempt is not so
regarded.[Footnote: _ex parte_ Bradley, 7 Wallace's Reports,
364, 376.] If the contempt be (as it may be) made the subject of
a formal criminal prosecution and a jury trial, an appeal is
allowed.

A punishment inflicted for contempt, even though it goes beyond
the rightful jurisdiction of the court in such a matter, is a
judicial act, and does not expose the judge passing the sentence
to an action for damages.[Footnote: Bradley _v._ Fisher, 13
Wallace's Reports, 335.]