Was Jane Austen for Victorian principles in the text of Emma?

To
answer this, it is necessary to clarify historical time
periods.lived the first part of her life (1775-1817)
during the reign of King George III, the King against whom the American colonies successfully
rebelled (American Revolution 1776). When King George succombed to mental disease, his son
George was made Prince Regent and assumed the throne in 1811. Jane Austen
wrote her novels in the 1790s, before the reign of the Prince
Regent began: Elinor and Marianne (1795; later to become
); First Impressions (1796-97; later to become
); (1798-99).

Austen's first novel
was published more than twelve years later as Sense and
Sensibility in 1811; the same year the Prince Regent, a patron of the arts, assumed
the throne. Pride and Prejudice was published a year later in 1812. Jane
Austen died five short years later in 1817.

Now we have it established that
Jane Austen lived and wrote during the reigns of King George III and the Prince
Regent, a period called the Regency that lasted
until 1830, thirteen years after her death. When Prince Regent George IV
died, his brother William IV ascended the throne and reigned until his death in 1837, twenty
years after Jane Austen's death. Princess Victoria was the eldest surviving
grandchild of King George III, so upon the death of William IV, Victoria ascended the throne as
Queen Victoria, again, twenty years after Austen's death. The period of
Queen Victoria's reign, 1837 until 1901, is called the Victorian
period and is the birthplace of "Victorian
principles." Jane Austen never lived to see the Victorian period nor to be
exposed to Victorian principles, so they are not considered in
.

One Victorian principle emphasized
imperialism, building an English empire upon which the "sun never set." Another
principle emphasized the advancement of science and technology, like the steam engine and the
first telegraph cable laid across the Atlantic Ocean in 1857. Another emphasized moral living
and lawful living, this to counteract the chaotic effects of so many villagers swarming to
London and other cities to earn their livings in the burgeoning Industrial Revolution. Another
principle emphasized modesty in action and dress, thus ladies gowns rose to the throat for all
social occasions except the most formal. During this period, ideas about women's legal rights
and suffrage grew, though Victoria did not support these ideas; she supported the idea of the
home angel which advocated women restricted to being the guiding force
behind family development and child rearing.

Austen shows in
Emma that she would have opposed some of these
much later values. For instance, she would have opposed the idea of the non-working,
non-producing woman since she found her own freedom in being a working woman writer. She would
have opposed the disempowerment of women since she shows the socio-cultural-economic power Emma
has to do good (or harm) to already disempowered impoverished gentlewomen who have no resources
to call upon to improve their lot. We can't know about empire or technology from
Emma though there are hints in and
.

"I would not quarrel with you
for any liberties of manner. Were she your equal in situationbut, Emma, consider how far this is
from being the case. She is poor; she has sunk from the comforts she was born to; and, if she
live to old age, must probably sink more." (Mr. Knightley on Miss Bates;Vol. III, Ch.
VII)