was apprenticed to his father, and in 1848, when he was 19, he was sent to work in the firm’s New York publishing branch, to expand the United States and Canadian market for its books and journals.
He travelled widely through the United States and Canada on business, He returned to England in 1850, when he was admitted as a liveryman of the Stationers' Company.
By 1852, Virtue had expanded the firm’s North American business to fifteen local branches in the major cities of the eastern United States and Canada.
In 1865, his younger brother, William Alexander Virtue, became a partner in the family's City Road and Ivy Lane businesses.
The brothers were also proprietors of Arthur Hall, Virtue & Co. which published all four of William H. Bartlett's Guelph collection books.
The business was conducted much upon the old lines, new and improved editions of illustrated works being issued, including Charles Knight's Shakespeare (1871), and Picturesque Palestine (1880).