8 JANUARY 1876, Page 3

Accidents seldom occur singly. The ' Goliath,' training-ship, was burnt only

last week, and early on Monday the Warspite,' the oldest of the training-ships, lying off Charlton, in the Thames, was discovered to be on fire. Everything was done to save her, the boys on board behaved with the greatest steadiness, and no lives were lost, but the ship burnt to the water's edge. It is suspected that the fire was the work of an incendiary, two boys having been seen coming out of the cockpit or the coal-hole ; but there is no certain evidence upon the point. The most probable guess is, that some boys whose imagination had been fired by the story of the 'Goliath' set fire to the ship, but it is, of course, possible that the fire was accidental,—one of those extraordinary repetitions of unusual chances of which so many occur in life.