The police made an arrest at Chingford to-day in connection with the East End murders, but the prisoner was subsequently released, the authorities having satisfied themselves that he could have had nothing to do with the Whitechapel murders.
At all the police stations at the East End yesterday matters were reported unusually quiet, a state of affairs due in great measure doubtless to the elaborate system of patrols recently instituted by the police in the neighbourhood, and the disappearance of many of the most disorderly characters from the streets at a comparatively early hour owing to the prevailing terror. Members of the vigilance committees lately instituted were also freely met with, while policemen and detectives in plain clothes were posted at various points within easy hail of each other in the event of an alarm being raised. The opinion generally expressed by the police and others on the watch for the murderer is that he will find the district too closely watched to allow him to repeat his terrible crime without detection, and that if head of again it will be in some other part of the Metropolis.
A Liverpool correspondent states that the police there have no knowledge of the report which has been circulated that they were cognisant of the movements of a man suspected of being concerned in the Whitechapel murders. The head constable has, however, given instructions for the railways stations and departing steamers to be closely watched.
Considerable excitement was caused in the neighbourhood of Blackfriars Road last evening by the report that another outrage had been committed on a woman in a narrow passage leading out of that thoroughfare. It appears that a woman's screams attracted the attention of passers-by, and two men were seen to run away, and were pursued but not captured. The woman had been thrown down and cuts inflicted on her face, but it is believed the injuries are not serious. The object of the attack was apparently robbery, for the woman's purse, containing about eight shillings, was picked up near the spot.
Up to eleven o'clock last night there had been no further arrest, and there was then no person in custody. The police do not appear to be any nearer the detection of the murderer.
