Document:

Exhibit 10(a)

	INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ CONSENT

	We consent to the incorporation by reference in this Post-Effective Amendment No. 5 to Registration Statement No. 333-56205 of
Merrill Lynch Pan-European Growth Fund of Mercury Funds, Inc. (the “Fund”) on Form N-1A of our reports dated July 8, 2003 for the
Fund and July 8, 2003 for Mercury Master Pan-European Growth Portfolio of Mercury Master Trust, both appearing in the May 31, 2003
Annual Report of the Fund, in the Statement of Additional Information which is part of this Registration Statement.  We also consent
to the reference to us under the caption “Financial Highlights” in the Prospectus, which is also part of this Registration Statement. 

	/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP 
    
	Princeton, New Jersey 

      September 12, 2003Exhibit 10(b)

	CONSENT OF SHEARMAN & STERLING LLP

	      We hereby consent to
      the reference to our firm included in the prospectus and statement of additional
      information of Merrill Lynch Pan-European Growth Fund of Mercury Funds,
      Inc. filed as part of Post-Effective Amendment No. 5 to the Registration
      Statement (File No. 333-56205) and to the use of our opinion of counsel,
      incorporated by reference to Exhibit 9 from Post-Effective Amendment No.
      7 of Merrill Lynch Small Cap Growth Fund of Mercury Funds, Inc.’s Registration
      Statement on Form N-1A (File No. 333-85731).

	 	/s/ Shearman &
      Sterling LLP
      

    
	 	 Shearman & Sterling
      LLP 
	New York, New York 

      September 17, 2003<PAGE>
                                                                     Exhibit 4.4

                                 HOLLINGER INC.
                       NON-COMPETITION, NON-SOLICITATION
                         AND CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT

THIS AGREEMENT is made as of the 15th day of November, 2000

BETWEEN:

               CANWEST GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION, a
               corporation governed by the laws of Canada
               ("CanWest")

                                    - and -

               3815668 CANADA INC., a corporation governed by the
               laws of Canada ("CanWest Subco")

                                    - and -

               HOLLINGER INC., a corporation governed by the laws
               of Canada ("Hollinger")

BACKGROUND:

A.     Pursuant to an agreement (the "Transaction Agreement") dated July 30,
2000 between CanWest and certain of the affiliates of Hollinger (the "Vendors"),
CanWest has agreed to purchase and the Vendors have agreed to sell certain of
the businesses and assets of the Vendors to CanWest as a going concern (the
"Acquired Business").

B.     CanWest Subco is a subsidiary of CanWest through which CanWest is
purchasing the Acquired Business.

C.     The Acquired Business currently carries on the business of owning and
operating newspapers, magazines, specialty publications, internet content
providers, a web-site portal and related businesses in Canada.

D.     Hollinger and its affiliates have knowledge of proprietary and
confidential information and trade secrets of the Acquired Business of a
competitively sensitive nature which constitute substantial assets of the
Acquired Business, the value of which would be lost or impaired if Hollinger or
its affiliates were to compete with the Acquired Business or use or disclose
such information.

E.     The consideration to be paid by CanWest Subco to the Vendors pursuant to
the Transaction Agreement includes a substantial amount which is attributable to
the goodwill of the Acquired Business, and it is a condition of the completion
of the transactions under the Transaction Agreement that Hollinger, its
affiliates and certain of its or its affiliates' senior

<PAGE>

                                      - 2 -

executives, execute and deliver to CanWest and its affiliates agreements
respecting non-competition, non-solicitation and confidentiality.

NOW THEREFORE in consideration of the foregoing, the parties hereto covenant,
acknowledge and agree as follows:

1.   DEFINITIONS - In this Agreement and the recitals hereto and any amendments
     to this Agreement, unless the context otherwise requires, the following
     words and phrases shall have the meaning set forth after them:

     "ACQUIRED BUSINESS" has the meaning given it in Recital A;

     "AFFILIATE" has the meaning given in the Canada Business Corporations Act;

     "COMPETING BUSINESS" means any business engaged in:

     (a)    the ownership, operation or publishing of Publications which are
            distributed within any postal code in which any Publication acquired
            by CanWest and/or its Affiliates pursuant to the Transaction
            Agreement, other than the interest in the National Post (an "INITIAL
            PUBLICATION") is distributed on the Effective Date (the "RESTRICTED
            AREA") other than any incidental distribution within the Restricted
            Area of any such Publication which is intended to be distributed
            primarily outside the Restricted Area; provided, however, that if
            CanWest or its Affiliates discontinues the operations of any Initial
            Publication, the Restricted Area with respect to CanWest and its
            Affiliates will no longer consist of those postal codes in which
            that Initial Publication was distributed as of the Effective Date,
            unless another Initial Publication was distributed in those same
            postal codes on the Effective Date;

     (b)    the provision of news content and advertising through the internet
            which is primarily directed at Persons residing within the
            Restricted Area;

     (c)    the ownership or operation of a generalized web-site portal or
            specialized web-sites that offer content, services and links
            comparable to that offered by Canada.com, Carclick.com,
            Homeclick.com, Careersclick.com, and other forms of classified
            advertising and web-sites providing local or nature news and
            informative content and Face-off.com, which web-sites are targeted
            primarily at users comparable to those targeted by such web-sites
            but, for greater certainty, excluding businesses in which Hollinger
            or its Affiliates hold portfolio investments immediately after the
            Effective Date and web-sites related to the Publications owned and
            operated by Hollinger or its Affiliates; and

     (d)    the operation of a nationally distributed newspaper.

<PAGE>

                                      - 3 -

     "EFFECTIVE DATE" means the date of closing of the transaction contemplated
     by the Transaction Agreement;

     "PERSON" means any individual, legal or personal representative,
     partnership, company, corporation, incorporated syndicate, unincorporated
     association, trust, governmental body or department agency or division of a
     government, association, joint venture or other business or governmental
     entity;

     "PUBLICATION" means daily, weekly or specialty newspapers, shopping guides,
     magazines or specialty publications;

     "TRANSACTION AGREEMENT" has the meaning given it in Recital A;

2.   NON-COMPETITION - Except for or on behalf of CanWest and its Affiliates or
     the Acquired Business or as provided in Sections 3 and 4, Hollinger, on its
     own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliates, covenants and agrees with
     CanWest, that neither it nor any of its Affiliates shall directly or
     indirectly, at any time during the five (5) year period from the date
     hereof, either alone or in conjunction with any Person, whether as
     principal, agent, shareholder, consultant, manager, owner, partner, limited
     partner, joint venturer, trustee, or in any other capacity whatsoever,
     invest in, undertake, carry on, be engaged in, be concerned with, have a
     financial interest in, advise, lend money to, guarantee the debts or
     obligations of or permit its name or any part thereof to be used or
     employed by or associated with any Person engaged in, concerned with or
     interested in, directly or indirectly, an undertaking or business in Canada
     which is engaged in a Competing Business.

3.   EXCEPTIONS - Nothing in this Agreement shall:

     (a)    restrict or prevent Hollinger or any of its Affiliates from holding
            or purchasing the publicly-traded securities of a Person (a
            "Competitor") engaged in a Competing Business in Canada, provided
            that the securities of the Competitor held by Hollinger and its
            Affiliates collectively do not exceed 5% of the outstanding
            securities of the Competitor, or 5% of the outstanding voting shares
            of the Competitor;

     (b)    restrict Hollinger or any of its Affiliates from continuing to own
            and operate in the normal course the balance of their newspaper
            businesses and interests remaining after the completion of the sale
            to CanWest of the Acquired Business, including the interest in The
            National Post Company; or

     (c)    subject to Section 4, restrict Hollinger or any of its Affiliates
            from acquiring a Competing Business as part of the acquisition of,
            or merger with another business where: (i) the value of such
            Competing Business at the time of the acquisition by Hollinger
            represented less than 5% of the total value of the transaction or
            group of related transactions in which Hollinger acquired the
            Competing Business; or (ii)

<PAGE>

                                      - 4 -

            the revenues of the Competing Business represent less than 5% of the
            consolidated annual revenues of the acquired or merged business as a
            whole (each an "Incidental Acquisition").

4.   ACQUISITION OF A COMPETING BUSINESS - Hollinger shall not be in default of
     this Section 4 if it owns and operates a Competing Business following the
     completion of an acquisition or merger resulting in an Incidental
     Acquisition (in this Section 4, the "Closing") provided that:

     (a)    immediately following the Closing, Hollinger provides Notice (as
            defined in the Transaction Agreement) to CanWest of the Closing and
            offers to sell the Incidental Acquisition to CanWest, such offer to
            set out the price in cash and the principal terms of the proposed
            sale, and provides CanWest with sufficient information respecting
            the Incidental Acquisition which would permit a reasonable
            prospective purchaser of such business to assess the merits of an
            acquisition;

     (b)    CanWest shall have thirty (30) business days from the date of the
            Notice from Hollinger of the acquisition of the Incidental
            Acquisition to accept or reject the offer, during which time it may
            conduct standard due diligence investigations in respect of which
            Hollinger shall provide all customary cooperation and additional
            information;

     (c)    if CanWest does not advise Hollinger within such thirty (30)
            business day period that it wishes to accept the offer, then
            Hollinger's offer shall be deemed to have been rejected. Subject to
            Section 4(e), if the offer is or is deemed rejected, Hollinger shall
            have a period of twelve (12) months after the date of Closing to
            complete a sale of the Incidental Acquisition to any other person;

     (d)    if Hollinger is unable to complete a sale of the Incidental
            Acquisition to a third party as provided herein within twelve (12)
            months after the date of Closing, Hollinger shall not operate it or
            any part thereof following such twelve (12) month period and shall
            close the operations of the Incidental Acquisition; and

     (e)    during the period following the Closing and prior to the sale to a
            third party, Hollinger shall not make (i) any material changes to
            the Incidental Acquisition; or (ii) any capital investment in the
            Incidental Acquisition; except as may be required to enable such
            business to operate in the normal and ordinary course.

5.   NON-SOLICITATION

     (a)    Hollinger, on its own behalf and on behalf of its Affiliates,
            covenants and agrees with CanWest and CanWest Subco that except for
            or on behalf of the Acquired Business or with the written consent of
            CanWest, neither it nor any of its

<PAGE>

                                      - 5 -

            Affiliates shall directly or indirectly, at any time within a period
            of five (5) years from the date hereof:

            (i)    induce or attempt to induce any of the employees of the
                   Acquired Business to leave his or her employment; or

            (ii)   employ or attempt to employ any senior executive or
                   management employees, publishers, journalists or senior
                   editorial personnel of any of the individual business units
                   comprising the Acquired Business, unless the employee has
                   been dismissed by CanWest or its Affiliates or resigned his
                   or her employment at least three (3) months prior to the
                   employment of such individual by Hollinger or its Affiliate.

     (b)    Section 5(a)(i) will not apply in respect of any employees of the
            Acquired Business who apply to Hollinger for a position (i) on an
            unsolicited basis, (ii) in response to an advertisement, or (iii)
            through an arm's length executive recruitment process normally
            carried on by Hollinger, provided Hollinger, directly or indirectly,
            has not initiated the contact with the employee.

6.   CONFIDENTIALITY - Hollinger acknowledges that it and its Affiliates have
     had access to confidential and proprietary information and trade secrets of
     the Acquired Business, the disclosure of any of which confidential and
     proprietary information and trade secrets to competitors of the Acquired
     Business or to the general public would be detrimental to the best
     interests of the Acquired Business and Hollinger acknowledges and agrees
     with CanWest and CanWest Subco that the right to maintain the
     confidentiality of such confidential and proprietary information and trade
     secrets, and the right to preserve the goodwill of the Acquired Business,
     constitute proprietary rights which each of CanWest and CanWest Subco is
     entitled to protect. Accordingly, Hollinger covenants and agrees with
     CanWest and CanWest Subco that neither it nor any of its Affiliates will at
     any time hereafter disclose any of such confidential and proprietary
     information except to its employees, consultants or other representatives
     to the extent required to discharge its obligations under the Management
     Services Agreement between Hollinger and an Affiliate of CanWest dated the
     date hereof, provided that no liability shall attach to any disclosure of
     information which:

     (a)    was already in the public domain or comes into the public domain or
            becomes available to Hollinger from a third party, without any
            breach of this Agreement or any other obligation of confidentiality
            to CanWest or CanWest Subco;

     (b)    is required to be disclosed pursuant to applicable laws or pursuant
            to policies or regulations of any regulatory authority or public
            body having jurisdiction over a party; or

     (c)    is required to be disclosed in any arbitration or legal proceeding.

<PAGE>

                                      - 6 -

7.   RESTRICTIONS REASONABLE - Hollinger acknowledges that the time, scope,
     geographic area and other provisions of this Agreement are reasonable in
     the circumstances of the transactions contemplated by the Transaction
     Agreement and are given as an integral and essential part of the
     transactions contemplated by the Transaction Agreement and are necessary in
     order to protect and maintain the business and assets and goodwill acquired
     by CanWest and CanWest Subco in connection with the transactions
     contemplated by the Transaction Agreement.

8.   ADDITIONAL REMEDIES - Hollinger acknowledges and understands that breach or
     threatened breach by it or any of its Affiliates, or non-performance by it
     of any of the covenants or promises contained herein may cause irreparable
     damage to CanWest, its Affiliates or the Acquired Business but not result
     in any readily quantifiable damages or that the remedy at law may be
     inadequate. Accordingly, Hollinger agrees and accepts that CanWest and/or
     CanWest Subco may, in addition to any other claim for relief, enforce the
     performance of any covenant of this Agreement by injunction or other
     equitable relief upon application to a court of competent jurisdiction
     without requirement to prove the inadequacy of available remedies, and
     agrees not to plead sufficiency of damages as a defence in any proceeding
     for injunctive or other equitable relief brought by CanWest or CanWest
     Subco to enforce the provisions of this Agreement. Hollinger agrees that
     since all of the restrictions in this Agreement are reasonable, all
     defences to the strict enforcement thereof by CanWest or CanWest Subco are
     hereby waived. Furthermore, the existence of any claim or cause of action
     which Hollinger or any of its Affiliates may have against CanWest or
     CanWest Subco shall not constitute a defence or bar to the enforcement of
     any of the provisions of this Agreement and shall be pursued by separate
     action by Hollinger.

9.   GOVERNING LAW AND ATTORNMENT - This Agreement shall be construed in
     accordance with the laws of the Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada
     applicable therein and shall be treated in all respects as an Ontario
     contract and in such proceeding the parties shall attorn to the laws of
     Ontario and the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the Ontario courts and agree
     not to dispute the competence or jurisdiction of such court.

10.  ASSIGNMENT - Neither this Agreement nor any rights or obligations hereunder
     may be assigned by any of the parties hereto, except;

     (a)    CanWest or CanWest Subco may assign the benefit of this Agreement to
            a purchaser of an Initial Publication as it applies to the
            Restricted Area applying to such publication and the solicitation
            and employment of the employees of such Initial Publication and in
            the event of a sale of an Initial Publication by CanWest or an
            Affiliate of CanWest in a circumstance where the purchaser wishes
            the benefit of this Agreement, Hollinger will and will cause its
            Affiliates to enter into an agreement or agreements with the
            purchaser of the Initial Publication on terms and conditions which
            are comparable to those in this Agreement for the remaining portion
            of the Agreement to the effect contemplated in this subsection (a)
            and in such events the definition of "Restricted Business" in this
            Agreement shall be

<PAGE>

                                      - 7 -

            amended such that it will no longer include those postal codes in
            which that Initial Publication was distributed as of the Effective
            Date, unless another Initial Publication was distributed in those
            same postal codes on the Effective Date;

     (b)    CanWest and CanWest Subco may assign this Agreement and the benefit
            thereof to an Affiliate as part of an internal reorganization.

11.  SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS - The provisions of this Agreement shall enure to
     the benefit of and be binding upon the parties hereto and their respective
     heirs, executors, administrators, successors and permitted assigns.

12.  NON-WAIVER - The failure of any party to this Agreement to require the
     performance of any term or condition of this Agreement or the waiver by any
     party of any breach of this Agreement, shall not prevent a subsequent
     enforcement of such term or any other term and shall not be deemed to be a
     waiver of any subsequent breach.

13.  AFFILIATES - At the written request of CanWest, Hollinger shall cause its
     Affiliates to execute an agreement with CanWest or any of its Affiliates
     substantially in the form of this Agreement.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF this Agreement has been executed by the parties hereto of the
date first above written.

                                       CANWEST GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS
                                       CORPORATION

                                       By:
                                           --------------------------------

                                       3815668 CANADA INC.

                                       By:
                                           --------------------------------

                                       HOLLINGER INC.

                                       By: /s/ Peter Y. Atkinson
                                           --------------------------------

Source: [{"source": "alea-institute/alea-institute/kl3m-data-edgar-agreements/train-00056-of-00352.parquet"}, [{"source": "alea-institute/alea-institute/kl3m-data-edgar-agreements/train-00056-of-00352.parquet"}], [{"source": "alea-institute/alea-institute/kl3m-data-edgar-agreements/train-00056-of-00352.parquet"}]]