Authority is hereby given to every city of the first and second classes, in the discretion of the councils thereof, to make appropriations from the treasury thereof to any society having for one of its objects the protection of children from cruelty, or the placing of children not otherwise provided for in families, to which society children of the citizens of said city may by law be committed by the magistrate or judges of the county within which said city may be situated, and all laws and parts of laws inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
53 P.S. § 5463