Where it may be, however, when it
comes down from the aristocratic threepence to the common penny of its
brethren remains to be seen; and I am told that all has long been in
readiness for the change when the fitting times arrives. And so, as "The
Argus" is still twopence to "The Age's" penny, inverted relations as to
circulation may some day not be impossible there also. The circulation
of the daily "Age", by my last account, is close upon 70,000, which is
not "a poor show for Kilmarnock," in that sense of the joke.
In 1858, Wilson quitted the colony "for good," as the phrase is,
followed by Mackinnon, and later on by their third and only other
partner, Mr. Allan Spowers. "The Argus" was now an established principle
of Victoria, and prosperity was assured. After a few more years of
economizing, until the business debt was finally cleared off, the
partners could enjoy to the full their great and well-merited fortunes.
Wilson and Mackinnon took up palatial country residences--the one at
first at Addington, ten miles from London, and later at the pleasant and
classic Hayes Place, the favourite abode of the great Chatham; the other
at Elfordleigh, in Devonshire; while Spowers lived chiefly in London,
where, as the common favourite of both, he, with his genial temper, kept
the peace between his seniors, who, with an infirmity too common to
human nature, were prone to disagree, for want, let us suppose, of
anything else to think about.
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