_My Dear Sir_,--I must be pardoned for refusing your request touching your MS. "Treatise on Pigs." I was obliged, some years ago, to come to the resolution not to express opinions of works sent to me. A candid opinion of those whose merit seemed to me small, gave offence, and I found it the best way to avoid a judgment in any case. I hope this will be satisfactory. I am, my Dear Sir, very respectfully yours, [Illustration: Washington Irving] JOSEPH L. MILLER, ESQ. Mr. Irving's hand writing is common-place. There is nothing indicative of genius about it. Neither could any one suspect, from such penmanship, a _high finish_ in the author's compositions. This style of writing is more frequently met with than any other. It is a very usual clerk's hand--scratchy and _tapering_ in appearance, showing (strange to say)--an eye deficient in a due sense of the _picturesque_. There may be something, however, in the circumstance that the epistle to Mr. Miller is evidently written in a desperate hurry. Paper very indifferent, and wafered. LETTER XII. _Boston_, ----. _Sir_,--In reply to your note of the ----, in which you demand if I am "the author of a certain scurrilous attack upon Joseph M. Miller, in the Daily Polyglot of the -- ult." I have to say that I am happy in knowing nothing about the attack, the Polyglot, or yourself. [Illustration: John Neal] JOSEPH M. MILLER. Mr. Neal's MS. is exceedingly illegible, and very careless. It is necessary to read one half his epistle and guess at the balance. The capitals and long letters, like those of Mr. Palfrey, extend far above and below the line, while the small letters are generally nothing but dots and scratches. Many of the words are run together--so that what is actually a sentence is frequently mistaken for a single word. One might suppose Mr. Neal's mind (from his penmanship) to be bold, excessively active, energetic, and irregular. Paper very common, and wafered. LETTER XIII. _Baltimore_, ----. _Dear Sir_,--I have received your note of the -- ult. and its contents puzzle me no little. I fear it will be impossible to give a definitive reply to an epistle so enigmatically worded. Please write again. Yours truly, [Illustration: John P. Kennedy] JOSEPH N. MILLER, ESQ.