The line about the "generous" public is classic Austenian irony, that's for sure - not to mention "the proper sport of boys and girls"!

I agree that JA herself was never in any danger of becoming ridiculous or disagreeable, but when she wrote "a very narrow income has a tendency to contract the mind, and sour the temper. Those who can barely live, and who live perforce in a very small, and generally very inferior, society, may well be illiberal and cross", I'm sure she must have been thinking "There but for the grace of God go I".