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SIGNATURE FREDERICK GREEN
TITLE PRESIDENT
<TABLE> <S> <C>
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<CIK> 0000701804
<NAME> THE MERGER FUND
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To the Board of Trustees of The Merger Fund
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of The Merger
Fund (the "Fund") for the year ended November 30, 1996, we considered its
internal control structure, including procedures for safeguarding securities, in
order to determine our auditing procedures for the purposes of expressing our
opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the requirements of Form
N-SAR, and not to provide assurance on the internal control structure.
The management of the Fund is responsible for establishing and maintaining an
internal control structure. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and
related costs of internal control structure policies and procedures. Two of
the objectives of an internal control structure are to provide management with
reasonable, but not absolute, assurance that assets are appropriately
safeguarded against loss from unauthorized use or disposition and that
transactions are executed in accordance with management's authorization and
recorded properly to permit preparation of financial statements in conformity
with generally accepted accounting principles.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control structure, errors or
irregularities may occur and may not be detected. Also, projection of any
evaluation of the structure to future periods is subject to the risk that it
may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or that the
effectiveness of the design and operations may deteriorate.
Our consideration of the internal control structure would not necessarily
disclose all matters in the internal control structure that might be material
weaknesses under standards established by the American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants. A material weakness is a condition in which the design or
operation of the specific internal control structure elements does not reduce
to a relatively low level the risk that errors or irregularities in amounts
that would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited
may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the
normal course of performing their assigned functions. However, we noted
no matters involving the internal control structure, including procedures for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined
above as of November 30, 1996.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management and the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
/s/ Price Waterhouse LLP
January 7, 1996
