nish family (see below), was born in
Calcutta on the 6th of August 1806; his mother, a daughter of General
William Kirkpatrick, was an exceptionally talented woman. He was educated
at Harrow, then privately in Edinburgh by Thomas Carlyle, and afterwards at
Trinity College, Cambridge, becoming a barrister in 1831. Before this date,
however, he had succeeded his father as member of parliament for West Looe;
after the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 and the consequent
disenfranchisement of this borough, he was returned to parliament by the
voters of Liskeard. He retained this seat until he died in London on the
29th of November 1848, leaving behind him, so Charles Greville says, "a
memory cherished for his delightful social qualities and a vast credit for
undeveloped powers." 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, and
after rendering conspicuous service to his chief, returned with him to
England in the same year. After practising as a barrister, Buller was made
judge-advocate-general in 1846, and became chief commissioner of the poor
law about a year before his death. 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. Buller 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. He wrote "A Sketch of Lord Durham's mission
to Canada," which has not been printed.

See T. Carlyle, _Reminiscences_ (1881); and S.J. Reid, _Life and Letters of
the 1st earl of Durham_ (1906).

BULLER, SIR REDVERS HENRY (1839-1908), British general, son of James
Wentworth