ABSTRACT
Every ground which exists for entrusting power to a body of men is a ground also for erecting safeguards against their abuse of the authority confided to them. Contempts of this kind are properly forbidden and promptly punished. Punishment for constructive contempt remains an anachronism which few persons have found themselves able to defend. The punishment is fine or imprisonment or both, and there is no limit to the amount of the one or the duration of the other. No prerogative of pardon exists to mitigate judicial error or prejudice; and, at least in theory, a defendant committed for a contempt of this kind might remain in prison for the whole of his life. The classic American experience in this regard is worth recalling. Judge Peck issued an attachment for contempt against an attorney practising in his court for having published in a newspaper a letter deemed by the judge a libel upon him in his judicial capacity.
