 He conceived of the purpose of government as being a mediating entity for the "conflicting interests" within Prussian civil society.In pursuing this mediation position, Manteuffel often came into conflict with the conservative and ultra-conservative members of the parliamentary government, whom he found unwilling to fully embrace the new constitutional order.He stressed that gone were the days in which the Prussian state should act, in his own words, 'like the landed estate of a nobleman.'