SWITZERLAND. The intro duction of the Order into Switzer land began in 1737, by warrant from the Grand Lodge of England, to Sir George Hamilton, as Provincial Grand Master, by authority of which he established a Provincial,Grand Lodge at Geneva. In 1739 the Duke of Montacute, Grand Master of England, granted a warrant to a number of English nobleman to establish a Lodge at Lausanne. Masonry flourished for a short time, when it was prohibited by the civil authorities of Berne. The lodges remained closed for nearly twenty years, when the old Lodge at Lausanne was revived, and flour ished for a short period. But soon the old prohibition was again issued against the Order. Internal dissen sions also entered the bodies, which, for a time, threatened its total de struction. Four distinct organiza tions, in spirited opposition to each other, existed at the same time in the republic. During the stormy political events between 1793 and 1803 the lodges remained closed.
When Neuenburg and Geneva were ceded to France, the Grand Lodge of Geneva ceased to exist, and all the lodges placed themselves under the Grand Orient of France, which immediately founded new lodges in various parts of the country. Peace, with its hermouious influences, was restored, and Masonry immediately revived. In 1822 a treaty of union was agreed upon between the Grand Orient and the English Provincial Grand Lodge, which assumed the name of the Grand Lodge of Switzerland. In 1814, through the efforts of the powerful and in fluential Masons of Switzerland, delegates from all the lodges met at Zurich, when the treaty of union was ratified for the newly founded Grand Lodge under the name of "Alpine." Switzerland displays in the present day great Masonic activity, and the Fraternity therein is much esteemed.