I said he could have, and if he had they would have been true. Mr Woodhouse would be utterly appalled if he knew what Emma had said, as would Mrs Weston, and some people (whose initials might be AE) might suppose that Mrs Weston had not taught Emma her manners properly.

I agree entirely that Mr Knightley is trying to awaken Emma's conscience rather than punish her, and it does look as if he may have succeeded. Perhaps this time she will actually learn from her mistakes - I certainly hope so, as we have relatively few chapters of the book left and so far IMO she has not. But I really should address that in a new thread, as it goes wider than the insult to Miss Bates.