Nothing whatever has been discovered during the week to throw
light upon the Whitechapel murders. The police enter- tain the belief, as we gather from the remarks of Mr. Craw- ford, the City Coroner, who is inquiring into the murder in Mitre Square, that they possess a fairly accurate description of the person of the murderer. He has, however, for the present, disappeared into space, unless it is he who writes certain letters signed "Jack the Ripper." The police think this is the case, and if so, he is an educated or partly educated man, of extreme audacity, intoxicated with the evil pride of crime, and resolute to commit more murders. The most stringent precautions are taken, not only in. Whitechapel, but in other places, such as the Parks, which offer facilities for the execution of his plans. Whitechapel itself was on Saturday and Sunday last watched, by police, detectives, and members of the Vigilance Committee, like a gaol-ward; but nothing happened, or perhaps could happen, the women threatened clinging together in hysteric alarm. A great number of futile arrests mark the eagerness of the police, and the state of public feeling is indicated by the fact that an attempt of the Chief Commissioner to secure the aid of trained bloodhounds has been warmly approved. Three months ago, Sir Charles Warren would have been bespattered with obloquy for resorting to what is popularly considered an inhuman device. It is not, we believe, inhuman, as the dogs only mark down, and do not attack the objects of pursuit ; but if they did, the public in this instance would approve their employ- ment. For this once, the cry for the abolition of capital punishment is stilled, as it always will be when society is really moved.
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