Charles Buller

The Right Honourable Charles Buller
Funerary monument, Kensal Green Cemetery, London.
Judge Advocate General
In office 8 July 1846 – 1847
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Lord John Russell
Preceded by	Hon. James Stuart-Wortley
Succeeded by	William Goodenough Hayter
President of the Poor Law Board
In office 23 July 1847 – 29 November 1848
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Lord John Russell
Preceded by	New office
Succeeded by	Matthew Talbot Baines
Personal details
Born	6 August 1806 (1806-08-06) Calcutta, British India
Died	29 November 1848 (1848-11-30) London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Spouse(s)	Unmarried
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge

Charles Buller (6 August 1806 – 29 November 1848), was a British barrister, politician and reformer.

Background and education

Born in Calcutta, British India, Buller was the son of Charles Buller (1774–1848), a member of a well-known Cornish family, and Barbara Isabella Kirkpatrick, daughter of General William Kirkpatrick, considered an exceptionally talented woman. He was educated at Harrow, then privately in Edinburgh by Thomas Carlyle, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his BA in 1828.^[1] He had been admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1824, and became a barrister in 1831.

Political career

Before this date, however, Buller had succeeded his father as Member of Parliament for West Looe.^[2] After the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 and the consequent disenfranchisement of this borough, he was returned to Parliament for Liskeard, a seat he retained until he died.^[3]

An eager reformer and a friend of John Stuart Mill, Buller voted for the Great Reform Bill, favoured other progressive measures, and presided over the committee on the state of the records and the one appointed to inquire into the state of election law in Ireland in 1836. In 1838 he went to Canada with Lord Durham as private secretary. For a long time it was believed that Buller wrote Lord Durham's famous Report on the Affairs of British North America. However, this is now denied by several authorities, among them being Durham's biographer, Stuart J Reid, who mentions that Buller described this statement as a groundless assertion in an article which he wrote for the Edinburgh Review. Nevertheless it is quite possible that the Report was largely drafted by Buller, and it almost certainly bears traces of his influence. He also wrote A Sketch of Lord Durham's mission to Canada, which was never printed. He returned with Durham to England in the same year.

Buller was briefly Secretary to the Board of Control under Lord Melbourne during 1841. After practising as a barrister, he was made Judge Advocate General by Lord John Russell in 1846,^[4] and became the first President of the Poor Law Board the following year.^[5]

Personal life

Buller died in office in London in November 1848, aged only 42. He never married. He was considered was a very talented man, witty, popular and generous, and is described by Carlyle as "the genialest radical I have ever met". Among his intimate friends were Grote, Thackeray, Monckton Milnes and Lady Ashburton. A bust of Buller is in Westminster Abbey, and another was unveiled at Liskeard in 1905.^[6] He left behind him, so Charles Greville says, a memory cherished for his delightful social qualities and a vast credit for undeveloped powers.^[7]

References

1. ^ Charles Buller in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
2. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Waterloo to West Looe
3. ^ leighrayment.com House of Commons: Lichfield and Tamworth to London and Westminster South
4. ^ London Gazette: no. 20621. p. 2534. 10 July 1846.
5. ^ London Gazette: no. 20807. p. 4629. 17 December 1847.
6. ^ Leonard Courtney's speech on that occasion of the unveiling of the Liskeard bust was reported in full in The Times, Saturday, Jan 14, 1905; pg. 7; Issue 37604; col C: Mr. Courtney On Charles Buller.
7. ^ An appreciation of Charles Buller's life and achievements appeared as an editorial in The Times, Thursday, Nov 30, 1848; pg. 4; Issue 20034; col A.

• T Carlyle, Reminiscences (1881)
• S. J. Reid, Life and Letters of the 1st Earl of Durham (1906)
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Charles Buller, Responsible Government For Colonies, Second Edition, London: James Ridgway, Piccadilly, 1840

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Charles Buller Sir Charles Hulse, Bt	Member of Parliament for West Looe 1830–1831 With: Sir Charles Hulse, Bt	Succeeded by Sir Anthony Buller Sir Charles Hulse, Bt
Preceded by Sir William Henry Pringle Lord Eliot	Member of Parliament for Liskeard 1832–1849	Succeeded by Richard Budden Crowder
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Seymour William Clay	Joint Secretary to the Board of Control 1841 With: William Clay	Succeeded by James Emerson Tennent Hon. Bingham Baring
New office	President of the Poor Law Board 1846–1847	Succeeded by Matthew Talbot Baines
Legal offices
Preceded by Hon. James Stuart-Wortley	Judge Advocate General 1846–1847	Succeeded by William Goodenough Hayter

Persondata
Name	Buller, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	6 August 1806
Place of birth	Calcutta, British India
Date of death	29 November 1848
Place of death	London, England