the imperial level as exemplified in the support given to the

missionaries in the post-emancipation period. In a circular sent out

in 1834 to the colonial governors (including the superintendent of
the Belize Settlement) the following exhortation is gven:
It is enough to say that His Majesty in accordance with the
great body of people of this kingdom, recognizes in its full extent
and force, the obligation of providing all practicable means for the
extension of Christianity among the large body of colonial subjects,
to whom our Holy Religion has not yet been or has been imperfectly
made known of imparting sound instructions on that subject to
those who are yet governed by the prejudice and misconception
arising out of the ignorance characterized by their former servile
state..... and of training up the youth of the British Colonies, in
the early familiarity with the doctrines and the precepts of the
scriptures, which affords the soundest basis of useful knowledge
and virtuous habits."

Another circular from Downing Street in 1845, following the

withdrawal of the Negro Education Grant, exhorts the
of the colonies to ensure that education
governors
continued to be fostered.
The circular appeals to the
governors to on impress
that Her all,
Majesty (Queen Victoria) earnestly wished that the freed
people
should exert themselves "to obtain instructions for
their children and, that they should evince
themselves and
their gratitude for the
blessing of freedom by making sacrifices in order to obtain
schooling"
A major proposal put forward by the Colonial Office at the time
of emancipation was that of providing agricultural and industrial
training for those who were freed from slavery. The
spelt out in yet another Colonial Office proposal is
circular
underlying purpose of agricultural and industrial setting
out the
training
t is not to be denied that
the future agricultural and commercial
as well as the moral and
spintual well-being of tbe communities must prosperity
be mainly
dependent on the impulses to be given to the education of the
Negroes.
The circular goes on to state that,

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