Background
Charles Buller was 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. Before this date, however, Buller had succeeded his father as Member of Parliament for West Looe.
Education
Charles Buller was educated at Harrow, then privately in Edinburgh by Thomas Carlyle, and afterwards at Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining his Bachelor in 1828.
Career
Charles Buller was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1824, and became a barrister in 1831. 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. In the aftermath of the Rebellions of 1837, he went to Canada in 1838 with Lord Durham as private secretary, and served in the second session of the Special Council of Lower Canada.
Foreign a long time it was believed that Buller wrote Lord Durham"s famous Report on the Affairs of British North America.
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, Charles Buller was made Judge Advocate General by Lord John Russell in 1846, and became the first President of the Poor Law Board the following year.
Politics
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.